Allahabad High Court Adjourns Hearing On PIL For CBI Probe Into LoP Rahul Gandhi's Citizenship Till October 24

The matter was posted for October 24 after the Deputy Solicitor General of India, Surya Bhan Pandey, sought time to receive written instructions from the Union Home Ministry regarding the status of the representation-cum-complaint, received by the Ministry, seeking cancellation of Gandhi's citizenship.

During the hearing, DSGI SB Pandey informed a bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Om Prakash Shukla that he has received verbal instructions from the Union Home Ministry that it is in receipt of a representation from PIL petitioner S. Vignesh Shishir requesting the cancellation of Gandhi's Indian citizenship.

It may be noted that in the previous hearing in the matter, the Court asked the Union of India whether it had received the representation-cum-complaint sent by the PIL petitioner to the competent authority and, if it had, what its status was.

The division had passed this order after noting that a similar PIL plea (by the same petitioner) had been moved earlier, which was dismissed as withdrawn, with a liberty to the petitioner to the petitioner to approach the competent authority under Section 9(2) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, as far as it is permissible in law.

The PIL petitioner claims that he has moved two representations with the Competent Authority in the Union Home Ministry seeking cancellation of Gandhi's Indian citizenship as per the Rules and Regulations of S. 9 (2) of the 1955 Act r/w Rule 40 (2) of the Citizenship Rules 2009 and Schedule III of the 2009 Rules.

For context, Section 40 of the 2009 Rules deals with the Central Government's authority to determine whether, when, or how any citizen of India acquired the citizenship of another country.

Averments made in the PIL plea

In his PIL plea, Petitioner Vignesh claims that after the HC dismissed his earlier PIL plea, he moved a detailed representation before the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, which is still pending.

His PIL plea also states that he made detailed enquiries into the issue, got several 'new inputs', and sent emails to the UK government seeking details about Gandhi's citizenship records.

In this process, the Petition further states that he learned that the UK government has already received a request from one VSS Sarma (respondent no. 14) seeking the details in 2022. After that, he (PIL petitioner-Vignesh) contacted Sarma, who agreed to share the 'confidential' emails he received from the UK Government.

The PIL petition alleges that in those 'confidential' emails (of 2022), the UK Government has indicated that it has records of Rahul Gandhi's British Nationality, and such 'personal data' is governed by the UK General Data Protection Regulations as per the Country's Data Protection Act, 2018. However, the plea adds that the alleged mail further states that the Government can't provide information about Gandhi unless the UK Govt gets a signed letter of authority from Gandhi.

Against this backdrop, the PIL plea claims that the alleged mail from the UK Government is an 'outright admission' that Gandhi is a citizen of the United Kingdom.

Therefore, the PIL pleads that the CBI conduct a detailed probe into the matter, get a Letter of Rogatory from a competent court in India and extract all the Government records and information available with the Government of the UK/Britain regarding Gandhi's citizenship.

The plea also prays for a direction to the Chief Election Commissioner, Chief Electoral Officer UP, and Returning Officer, Raebareli, to cancel Gandhi's electoral certificate.

It may be noted that Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy has also filed a petition in the Delhi High Court regarding Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's citizenship.

Hearing the case last week, the Delhi HC asked the Union Government's counsel to obtain a copy of the petition pending before the Allahabad High Court on the issue.