The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Rahul Gandhi and others to respond to a plea alleging that the Congress leader pushed a pregnant journalist during a march to the top court on October 12.The plea was mentioned by senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, which issued notice to Gandhi and others. A female journalist was manhandled on the court premises, Bhatia told the Bench.Earlier, Bhatia had mentioned the matter twice before the Bench, on October 15 and 16.Bhatia had requested the Bench to consider the alleged incident involving the pregnant journalist, claiming that Gandhi pushed her on the Supreme Court premises.“A lady journalist was pushed by Rahul Gandhi in the Supreme Court precincts. She’s three months pregnant and had to be hospitalised,” Bhatia had submitted.The CJI had asked Bhatia to file an application on the issue, saying that the court would examine the matter.“Respondent No. 4 (Rahul Gandhi) suddenly pushed her towards the gate with such force that she lost her balance and fell, and had to break her fall with her hands. The push was delivered openly, in a crowded place, in the presence of security personnel, journalists and other persons, despite her express pleas, and was not a mere jostle of the crowd,” the plea stated.On October 15, the Bench had taken up several petitions filed by the Network for Women in Media, the Delhi Union of Journalists and others, raising concerns over alleged assaults on journalists, particularly women journalists, and lawyers during the march led by Rahul Gandhi to the Supreme Court on October 12.It had granted interim protection from coercive action to a woman journalist in a case filed against her by Delhi Police ACP Vivek Bhagat under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.The case was allegedly filed after she accused Bhagat of sexual harassment during protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar near Jantar Mantar in Delhi.The woman journalist has been accused of subjecting Bhagat to “public humiliation and casteist slurs”, along with her colleagues, while he was discharging his official duties during the protest.The Bench had agreed to examine allegations of sexual violence against women journalists covering the protests. It had also asked the Centre and other respondents to state their positions on framing guidelines to govern interactions between the police and other law-enforcement agencies and journalists during protests and crowd-control operations.