TRS lawmaker moves HC challenging cancellation of his citizenship by MHA

Ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) lawmaker Chennamaneni Ramesh on Thursday moved the high court challenging the Union home ministry’s move to cancel his Indian citizenship a day earlier.

Ramesh’s citizenship was cancelled on the grounds that he had held German nationality and did not fulfil the stipulated norms for becoming an Indian national a decade ago.

“I have filed a fresh petition in the high court questioning the... [Union home ministry] order cancelling my Indian citizenship. It may come up for hearing on Friday,” Ramesh said.

Ramesh, nephew of former Maharashtra governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, has represented Telangana’s Vemulawada assembly constituency since 2009.

Congress leader Adi Srinivas, who has unsuccessfully contested against Ramesh, filed a petition requesting the high court to keep him in the loop about the lawmaker’s challenge to the Union home ministry’s move.

He said that Ramesh had cheated the government of India as well as the people of Vemulawada constituency by filing a false affidavit before the Election Commission about his Indian citizenship. Srinivas said that he would produce all necessary documents to counter Ramesh’s claims in the court.

Ramesh obtained German citizenship in 1993 before getting Indian nationality again in 2008.

As per the Citizenship Act, a person applying for Indian citizenship should be present in India at least for 12 months before the date of application.

Srinivas lodged a complaint with the Union home ministry stating that Ramesh held the German passport and went to Germany within this stipulated 12-month period before he was granted the Indian citizenship.

A Union home ministry committee concluded that Ramesh obtained the Indian citizenship “by playing fraud upon the Government of India and concealing crucial material facts of his visits abroad during the last twelve months immediately preceding his application for Indian citizenship”.