LUCKNOW The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Monday directed the ministry of home affairs (MHA) to present all records in connection with a dual citizenship complaint against the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress MP from Rae Bareli Rahul Gandhi.
Justice Rajeev Singh gave the direction in a petition filed by S Vignesh Shishir, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker from Karnataka, who challenged a January 28 order of a special MP/MLA court in Lucknow, which rejected his plea seeking registration of an FIR against Gandhi.
Deputy solicitor general of India SB Pandey said the court issued an interim order directing the Foreigners division and Citizenship wing of the MHA to submit the entire file related to Rahul Gandhi’s alleged British citizenship to the court.
“The file is related to the complaint that was lodged by [former BJP MP] Subramanian Swamy against Rahul Gandhi. The court has directed to present this complete file before it on March 19, next date of hearing,” advocate Raj Kumar Singh, representing the Centre, said.
Swamy has pursued legal action since 2019 to cancel Gandhi’s Indian citizenship, alleging he had declared British nationality in documents for a UK company. The MHA had issued a notice on April 29, 2019, to Gandhi in this case. The court has directed the MHA to present that file to know about the status of the case, Singh added.
{{/usCountry}}Swamy has pursued legal action since 2019 to cancel Gandhi’s Indian citizenship, alleging he had declared British nationality in documents for a UK company. The MHA had issued a notice on April 29, 2019, to Gandhi in this case. The court has directed the MHA to present that file to know about the status of the case, Singh added.
{{/usCountry}}On January 28 this year, the MP/MLA court had dismissed the plea seeking FIR against the Congress leader, citing it was not competent to decide issues related to citizenship. In his plea before the high court, Shishir has sought directions for registration of an FIR against Gandhi and a detailed investigation into the matter.