Delhi HC Requests Centre's Response on Petition to Revoke Rahul Gandhi's Citizenship

New Delhi, Dec 6 (NationPress) The Delhi High Court on Friday requested the stand of the Union government regarding a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that seeks a directive to cancel the Indian citizenship of Rahul Gandhi, who has identified himself as a British citizen.

A bench led by Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Vibhu Bakhru instructed the Union government’s standing counsel to secure instructions from the Union Home Ministry on this issue.

The bench, which included Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, scheduled the hearing of Subramanian Swamy’s PIL for January 13, 2025, after it was noted that the previous standing counsel has been recently promoted to a senior advocate and a new counsel needs to be assigned.

The ACJ Bakhru-led bench chose not to issue a formal notice to the respondents but directed the Union government’s standing counsel to gather instructions regarding the case.

In a prior session, the Delhi HC instructed Swamy’s lawyer to present the order from the Allahabad High Court concerning a similar petition.

It was noted that identical issues should not be concurrently addressed by two different forums for the sake of justice.

“We intend to ensure that we do not infringe upon the jurisdiction of the other High Court,” it commented.

The petition submitted by Swamy to the Delhi High Court requested that the Union Home Ministry provide a status report on the complaint he filed against Gandhi and resolve it promptly.

The BJP leader had, in 2019, communicated with the Union Home Ministry regarding violations allegedly made by Rahul Gandhi by voluntarily revealing to the UK government that he is a citizen of British nationality and possesses a British passport.

Swamy contended that with this declaration, the Congress leader no longer qualifies as an Indian citizen under Article 9 of the Constitution as interpreted with the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955.

“A company known as Backops Limited was registered in the UK in 2003, with an address at 51 Southgate Street, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 9EH, where Gandhi served as one of the Directors and Secretary of the company. In the Annual Returns filed on 10/10/2005 and 31/10/2006, your (Gandhi) date of birth was listed as 19/06/1970, and you declared your nationality as British. Moreover, in the dissolution application dated 17/02/2009 for the aforementioned company, your nationality was also mentioned as British,” stated the Union Home Ministry in correspondence to Rahul Gandhi regarding Swamy’s complaint.

In his petition, submitted through advocate Satya Sabharwal, Swamy indicated that he made multiple requests to the Home Ministry seeking updates on his complaint, but he has received no response or action.

“Therefore, this petition seeks a directive to Respondent No. 1 (Home Ministry) to provide a status report on the complaint/representation filed by the petitioner against Respondent No. 2 (Rahul Gandhi) and to resolve the complaint/representation expeditiously and provide the final order on the matter,” the petition stated.

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