The Gujarat High Court rejected Rahul Gandhi's plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his Modi surname remark.
This means the Congress leader remains disqualified as a Member of Parliament.
Gandhi will now move the Supreme Court to challenge his conviction.
In May, Justice Hemant Prachchhak denied an interim relief, saying it would pass a final order after the summer vacation, which ended three weeks back.
A Surat metropolitan magistrate's court sentenced the former Congress president to a maximum of two years in jail on March 23 after convicting him in a criminal defamation case filed in 2019 by Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Purnesh Modi.
Gandhi was disqualified as an MP for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, which bars MPs if they are convicted for two years or more.
Gandhi challenged the order in a session court in Surat and also sought a stay on the conviction. While the court granted him bail, it refused to stay the conviction.
Purnesh Modi filed a criminal defamation case against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark during an election rally at Kolar in Karnataka in 2019.
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