Allahabad HC seeks Centre's response on Rahul Gandhi's Indian citizenship

Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court has directed the Centre to place before it on December 19 the decision taken on a representation moved against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that claimed he concealed his British citizenship in contesting the parliamentary election from Raebareli seat this year.

A bench of justices AR Masoodi and Subhash Vidyarthi passed the order on a public interest litigation filed by S Vignesh Shishir, a BJP worker from Karnataka.

The petition also demanded that the CBI be ordered to register a case and investigate into the matter, saying Gandhi's dual citizenship is a crime under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Passport Act.

While hearing the PIL on the previous occasion, the court had sought information from the Centre whether it had received the petitioner's representation. In compliance with the order, Deputy Solicitor General SB Pandey informed the court that the representation has been received by the ministry concerned and is currently under process.

In the PIL, Shishir claimed that he has all the documents and some emails of the British government, which prove that Gandhi is a British citizen and due to this he is ineligible to contest elections in India and cannot hold the post of a Lok Sabha member.

The petitioner also claimed that he had sent complaints twice to the competent authority regarding Gandhi's dual citizenship but the present petition has been filed as no action was taken by them.

At this, the court had summoned the details of the action taken on the petitioner's representation.