HC gives 4 weeks to Centre to decide on Rahul Gandhi's citizenship

The high court was hearing a plea filed by a Karnataka resident S Vignesh Shishir who alleged that Rahul Gandhi is a citizen of Britain along with India

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday (March 24) gave four weeks to the Centre to decide on the issue of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's citizenship. The home ministry had asked for eight weeks to make its decision, but that request was shot down, according to a report by NDTV. 

 

The high court was hearing a plea filed by a Karnataka resident S Vignesh Shishir who alleged that Rahul Gandhi is a resident of Britain along with India, and therefore, according to the Article 84 (a) of the constitution, he is ineligible to contest Indian elections. Article 84 (a) of the constitution says that to be qualified to a Parliamentary election, a person must be a citizen of India.

 

 

Questions around Rahul Gandhi's citizenship have been doing the rounds for several years now. A separate plea has been filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in which he alleged that Rahul Gandhi has declared himself a British citizen in many documents, which is a clear violation of Indian constitution and the citizenship act, as it doesn't allow a person to hold dual citizenship. 

'Violation of constitution'

 

The petitioner in this case claimed to have direct communication from the UK government, which allegedly listed Rahul Gandhi as a British citizen.  Indian constitution doesn't allow to hold dual citizenship. If any citizen acquires citizenship in another country, his/her Indian citizenship is automatically revoked, as per the constitutional provisions. 

 

Section 9(1) of the Citizenship Act deals with this. According to it, if any citizen "voluntarily acquires, or has at any time between the 26th January, 1950 and the commencement of this Act, voluntarily acquired, the citizenship of another country shall, upon such acquisition or, as the case may be, such commencement, cease to be a citizen of India."

   

Legal challenges

 

Apart from the citizenship cases, Rahul Gandhi has also found himself embroiled in various court cases recently. 

 

On March 21, regarding his statement of "fight against the Indian state," the District Court of Sambhal had issued a notice to the Congress leader, telling him to either respond or appear on April 4 in connection with a complaint filed against him over his statement., as reported by ANI.

 

Though last month he received some relief from a Pune court, when it granted permanent exemption to him (Rahul Gandhi) from appearance in a defamation case filed over his alleged objectionable remarks on Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar, citing his top-level security and the Leader of Opposition status.