LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has granted 10 more days to the Union Government to decide on the representation filed before it seeking cancellation of the citizenship of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.
While hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by a BJP member, S Vignesh Shishir of Karnataka, the division bench, comprising Justice Attaur Rehman Masoodi and Justice Ajai Kumar Srivastava-I, granted more time to the Centre to respond to the issue.
The litigant has sought a CBI probe into Gandhi's alleged British citizenship.
However, during the hearing, Deputy Solicitor General of India, Surya Bhan Pandey, sought further time to decide on the issue.
Consequently, the division bench posted the matter for the next hearing on May 5. Notably, the petitioner has already submitted a detailed representation-cum-complaint to the Minister of Home Affairs urging it to cancel Rahul Gandhi's Indian citizenship.
Vignesh has moved the representation as per the rules and regulations of S9 (2) of the 1955 Act r/w Rule 40(2) of the Citizenship Rules 2009, and Schedule III of the 2009 Rules.
Initially, Vignesh had moved a similar PIL that was dismissed with the liberty to the petitioner to approach the competent authority under Section 9(2) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, as far as is permissible in law.
Subsequently, the petitioner moved a detailed representation before the Union Minister of Home Affairs, which is still pending.
In the PIL, the petitioner also claims that he made inquiries into the issue, procured several new inputs and sent emails to the UK Government seeking details about Gandhi's citizenship records.
The PIL also claims that an alleged mail from the UK government is an outright admission that Rahul Gandhi is a UK citizen.
As a result, the PIL seeks a CBI probe into the matter, obtain a letter of request from a competent court of India and extract all the government records and information available with the Government of the UK/Britain regarding the citizenship of Rahul Gandhi.
The plea also seeks the court to issue directives to the Chief Election Commissioner of India and the Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh, along with the Returning Officer of Re Bareli, to cancel Rahul Gandhi's electoral certificate.