The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the Centre to respond to a petition by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy concerning the citizenship of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Live Law reported.
In August 2019, Swamy wrote a letter to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs claiming that Gandhi had “voluntarily disclosed” to the government of the United Kingdom that he was a citizen of that country, and that this implied that the Congress leader held a British passport, the Hindustan Times reported.
Subsequently, Swamy sought a direction from the court to the Centre for an update on the status of his complaint seeking that Gandhi’s Indian citizenship be revoked, Live Law reported.
On Friday, a bench of acting Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela was told that the counsel representing the Centre in the matter had been designated as a senior advocate recently. Therefore, the matter had to be assigned to a new counsel.
The proxy counsel for the Centre sought time for a new counsel to take over the case, The Hindu reported.
However, Swamy, who appeared in person, urged the court to issue notice on the petition. The bench in reply said that it “will see what their [Centre] stand is and will then seek their response if we want”, The Hindu reported.
It listed the matter for further hearing on January 13.
In his petition to the court, Swamy cited the 2019 letter and claimed that Gandhi, being an Indian citizen, violated Article 9 of the Constitution, along with the Indian Citizenship Act, according to The Hindu. The Congress leader would, therefore, cease to be an Indian citizen, it added.
Article 9 mandates that a person cannot be an Indian citizen if they voluntarily acquire citizenship of a foreign country. The Indian Citizenship Act details how a person can become a citizen of the country and the conditions and procedures for doing so.
The BJP leader said that he had filed several representations to the ministry about the status of his complaint, but that no action had been taken in response to it.
A BJP worker from Karnataka named S Vignesh Shishir had also filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court concerning Gandhi’s citizenship, according to Live Law.
At the hearing on Friday, Shishir told the Delhi court about the developments in the case in Allahabad. He had earlier been allowed by the Delhi High Court to file an impleadment application and submit an affidavit on the developments in his case, The Hindu reported.
Swamy has told the Delhi High Court that the matter pending before Allahabad High Court had nothing to do with his case, according to The Hindu. However, Shishir said that the petition filed by Swamy was leading to parallel proceedings.
In May 2019, the Supreme Court dismissed another petition seeking to debar Gandhi from contesting the Lok Sabha elections that year on the grounds that was a British citizen.
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