Rahul Gandhi today expressed regret to the Supreme Court for his comments on its order on the Rafale fighter jet deal, accepting that the court “never said these words”.

Rahul Gandhi was served notice by the Supreme Court and accused of misquoting it on its Rafale order and was given a week to explain before the ruling BJP’s contempt case against him was taken up on Tuesday.

“We make it clear the statement attributed to this court in the address made by the respondent (Rahul Gandhi) to the media and public has been incorrectly attributed to this court. We make it clear this court never made such observation. We only decided on the admissibility of documents,” three judges led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said last week.

Rahul Gandhi had made the comments in response to the Supreme Court ruling that classified documents accessed by the media can be used as evidence to consider requests to review a verdict clearing the Rafale jet deal.

“I want to thank the Supreme Court. The entire country is saying that Chowkidar chor hai (Chowkidar has committed theft). It is a day of celebration that the Supreme Court has talked about justice,” the Congress president had said in his constituency Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP accused him of putting words in the mouth of the top court and sued him for contempt.

The Supreme Court said it wanted Rahul Gandhi’s response. “We never made any such observations commented on by Rahul Gandhi,” said the court.