SC dismisses plea against Sonia

Describing it as the most frivolous petition, a bench dismissed the public interest litigation against Congress chief

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition challenging Congress president Sonia Gandhi's election from Rae Bareli in a by-election held in May.

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Describing it as the most frivolous petition, a bench comprising Chief Justice YK Sabharwal, Justice CK Thakker and Justice RV Raveendran dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Santosh Kumar Srivastava and others with Rs10,000 cost.

The petitioners referred to an affidavit filed by Gandhi along with her nomination stating that she owned an ancestral property worth Rs 1.3 million in Italy.

In view of this, they said that under the scheme of the constitution she should not have been allowed to contest the Lok Sabha polls.

The petitioners contended that under Article 102(1)(D) of the constitution (disqualification for membership) any person owing allegiance or adherence to a foreign country was liable to be disqualified from the membership of Parliament.

They had sought a direction for her disqualification.