SC dismisses plea seeking to debar Rahul Gandhi from contesting LS polls

The Supreme Court Thursday dismissed a plea seeking direction to the Centre and the Election Commission to debar Congress President Rahul Gandhi from contesting the Lok Sabha elections till the issue of his alleged British citizenship is decided.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi rejected the contention of the petitioners' lawyer who said that in a form along with the annual data of a UK-based company in 2005-06, it was allegedly mentioned that Rahul Gandhi is a British citizen.

"If some company in some form mentions his nationality as British, does he become a British citizen," said the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.

The counsel appearing for the petitioners -- Jai Bhagwan Goyal and C P Tyagi -- told the bench that Gandhi was contesting Lok Sabha elections from two seats and aspires to become the Prime Minister despite the fact that he had allegedly acquired dual citizenship.

"If 123 crore people say that this man should be the Prime Minister, will you mind that?", the bench told the counsel.

At the outset, the bench asked the counsel, "Who are you (petitioners)? What you do for living?"