Rahul Gandhi citizenship case: Delhi HC grants time to Subramanian Swamy to file documents

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday (Oct 9) granted BJP leader Subramanian Swamy time to file a copy of petition pending before the Allahabad High Court on the issue of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship. 

The court was informed by Swamy that he had obtained the copy of the petition and the prayers in that matter are different from that of his pleadings.

A bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked the petitioner to file the documents in electronic form in compliance with its last order and listed his plea for further hearing on November 6.

The bench was hearing a plea by Swamy seeking directions to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to decide his representation seeking cancellation of Gandhi’s Indian citizenship.

Swamy, in his plea, also sought a direction to the MHA to furnish a status report on the representation filed by him against Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

At the outset, Swamy submitted that the matter pending before the Allahabad High Court has got nothing to do with his case and the prayers are totally different.

The Delhi High Court had said a petition on a similar issue was also being heard by its Allahabad counterpart and two courts can’t deal with the same issue simultaneously.

It had said before proceeding further in the matter, it will be in the interest of justice to know about the pending petition in the Allahabad High Court.

Swamy’s plea, filed by advocate Satya Sabharwal, said that on August 6, 2019, the petitioner had written a letter to the ministry alleging that Gandhi had “voluntarily disclosed” to the British government that he was a citizen of British nationality, amounting to holding a British passport.

Earlier, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court asked the Centre whether it had taken any decision on a representation filed under the Citizenship Act, 1955 asking it to inquire into the allegations.

It was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) moved by BJP worker from Karnataka, S. Vignesh Shishir, claiming that he has done detailed enquiries into the issue of Gandhi being a British citizen and has got several new inputs.

In his plea in the Delhi High Court, Swamy has said that the Congress leader, being an Indian citizen, has violated Article 9 of the Constitution, read with the Indian Citizenship Act, and would cease to be an Indian citizen. He said he has sent many representations to the ministry inquiring about the status of his complaint but neither any action has been taken nor has he been intimated about it.

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