LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court disposed the petition challenging Rahul Gandhi's Indian citizenship on Monday. The Court, however, gave liberty to the petitioner to seek alternative legal remedies in the matter.
The division bench, comprising Justice AR Masoodi and Justice Rajeev Singh, delivered the order disposing of the plea.
In its decision, the bench stated that since the Central Government was unable to specify any time frame for resolving the petitioner's complaint, there was no justification for keeping the petition under consideration.
However, the court gave petitioner S Vignesh Shishir, a resident of Bengaluru, the freedom to pursue other legal options.
“The petitioner is free to seek alternative legal remedies in this matter,” said the bench.
It may be recalled that the Lucknow bench of Allahabad HC had given clear instructions to the Union government on April 21 to clarify within 10 days whether Rahul Gandhi was an Indian citizen or a British one.
After the deadline for this grace period ended on Monday, a hearing was held in the High Court.
On the earlier hearing, the division bench, comprising Justice Attaur Rehman Masoodi and Justice Ajai Kumar Srivastava-I, had granted more time to the centre to respond to the issue.
The litigant had sought a CBI probe into Gandhi's alleged British citizenship.
During the April 21 hearing, Additional Solicitor General Suryabhan Pandey had submitted a status report on behalf of the Centre. However, the court found the report unsatisfactory and made strong observations: “This is a matter of national importance. Delay will not be tolerated.”
The petition was filed by advocate and BJP leader S Vignesh Shishir. He claimed that Rahul Gandhi had described himself as a “British citizen” while serving as a director in a UK-based company.
The petitioner argued that dual citizenship violated Election Commission rules rendering a person ineligible to contest elections.
Petition S Vignesh Shishir had submitted that he had presented strong evidence to the Union Home Ministry, including official documents obtained from the UK government to support his claim that the Congress Rae Bareli MP had British citizenship. The petition was filed under Section 9(2) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, seeking cancellation of Gandhi’s Indian citizenship.
The petition hade first come up for hearing on March 24 by a bench of Justice A R Masoodi and Justice Ajay Kumar Srivastava -I. The state was directed to file a status report within four weeks, but the Centre sought eight weeks. The matter was then adjourned to April 21.
On December 19, 2024, another bench comprising Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Om Prakash Shukla had asked the Additional Solicitor General to obtain information from the Home Ministry. The Ministry stated that a letter had been sent to the UK government and requested time to prepare a complete report.