SC declines urgent hearing on Rahul Gandhi's nationality issue

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined an urgent hearing on a PIL demanding a CBI probe into the nationality issue of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

A PIL was filed in the apex court yesterday seeking a direction to the CBI to register a case against Gandhi for allegedly declaring himself a British national before the company law authorities there.

The PIL, filed by advocate M. L. Sharma, also urged the apex court to order registration of a criminal case against the Congress vice-president for cheating and forgery.

Accusing Gandhi of declaring himself a British citizen to float a company in the United Kingdom, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy had earlier written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that the Congress vice-president be ripped off his Indian citizenship as well as his parliamentary membership.

Swamy had alleged that Gandhi had floated the company Backops Limited declaring himself a British national with a UK address.

The Congress had, however, rubbished Swamy's charges.

Terming it to be an 'error', the Congress produced documents claiming that at the time of floating the company in 2003, Gandhi was registered as an Indian citizen and that he was mentioned as a British National in the annual return forms of the company by mistake.