New Delhi: The Allahabad High Court has asked the Union Home Ministry to investigate a petition seeking the cancellation of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Indian citizenship, citing the alleged possession of dual British citizenship.
In its response, the deputy solicitor general of India said “the representation made by the petitioner has been received by the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs)”. The case will be heard next on December 19.
The order to the Centre was issued by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday (November 25), asking for details on the action taken by the government. A division bench of Justices AR Masoodi and Subhash Vidyarthi issued the directions on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a Karnataka BJP worker and advocate, S Vignesh Shishir, demanding a CBI probe into Gandhi’s citizenship issue.
The court asked Additional Solicitor General SB Pandey to obtain instructions from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on this matter within three weeks and to place its response at the next hearing.
What did the petition say?
The petitioner Shishir had alleged that there is evidence indicating that Gandhi holds British citizenship, mentioning emails purportedly obtained from the UK government as part of an earlier prober made by another individual, VSS Sarma.
As per the petitioner, in 2022, Sarma had got in touch with UK authorities for information on Gandhi’s citizenship. The UK government reportedly confirmed some details, but it refused to disclose full information, citing data protection laws and as there was no signed letter of authority from Gandhi. On November 25, Deputy Solicitor General SB Pandey told the court that the Union Home Ministry had received the petitioner’s representation and was processing it.
The court has pointed out that its focus currently was solely on whether the central government had got the representations and what decision or action it was proposing to take.
Earlier in July, the petition had been withdrawn after the court allowed the petitioner the freedom to pursue remedies under the Citizenship Act. The current plea was filed after the petitioner reportedly failed to receive a response to two representations sent to the Union Home Ministry. Shishir claims that the emails and supporting materials suggest that Gandhi’s British citizenship could disqualify him from holding Indian citizenship under Indian law.
According to Article 9 of the Indian Constitution, no person can hold dual citizenship, which means that they cannot simultaneously be a citizen of India and another country.
