NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday set aside a magistrate’s order that had declined to direct a probe into allegations that Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s name was entered in the electoral roll three years before acquiring Indian citizenship in 1983, and sent back the matter for fresh consideration.
Special Judge Vishal Gogne, while hearing a revision petition by advocate Vikas Tripathi, vice-president of the Central Delhi Court Bar Association at Rouse Avenue courts, held that the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) had passed a “non-speaking order” that “suffers from a manifest error in law”.
Tripathi’s complaint alleges that Sonia’s name was unlawfully entered in the electoral roll of the New Delhi Parliamentary Constituency in 1980, though she acquired citizenship only on April 30, 1983. The name was deleted in 1982 but re-entered in 1983, before she became a citizen, the complaint said.
“An order of the court must maintain fidelity towards the law, and not flirt with facts,” the judge said. “The sanctity of the electoral roll is an article of faith for every citizen in a parliamentary democracy.” Gogne said any allegation of fraudulent inclusion of a non-citizen or use of false documents “merits a reasoned order”.
The judge said the ACJM did not discuss the sequence of inclusion, deletion and re-inclusion of Sonia’s name in 1980, 1982 and 1983.
He also found that the magistrate did not hear the police or call for a status report, as Section 175(3) of the BNSS requires before ordering an investigation. The magistrate also failed to weigh two options open in law: directing an FIR, or examining complainant and witnesses. The matter, posted for September 29, was sent back to ACJM court for a fresh hearing.
Casual dismissal
The court said rather than finding if the allegations constituted a cognisable offence, the ACJM “casually dismissed the extract of the electoral roll as being a photocopy of the photocopy of uncertified roll of 1980.”
