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Responding to this, the deputy solicitor general of India said “the representation made by the petitioner has been received by the Ministry of Home Affairs”. The next date of hearing on the matter is December 19
The PIL seeks the cancellation of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Indian citizenship due to the alleged possession of dual British citizenship. (Image: PTI/File)
The Allahabad High Court has directed the Union home ministry to decide on a plea seeking the cancellation of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Indian citizenship due to the alleged possession of dual British citizenship.
Responding to this, the deputy solicitor general of India said “the representation made by the petitioner has been received by the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs)”. The next date of hearing on the matter is December 19.
The directions to the Centre were made by the Lucknow bench of the high court on Monday (November 25), seeking details on the action taken on this representation. A division bench of Justices AR Masoodi and Subhash Vidyarthi passed the order on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a Karnataka BJP worker, S Vignesh Shishir, seeking a CBI probe into Gandhi’s citizenship matter.
The court directed the additional solicitor general SB Pandey to obtain instructions from the MHA in this regard within three weeks and to place its response on the next date.
Earlier on November 6, the Delhi High Court was informed that a CBI probe had been initiated into the citizenship matter.
The matter before the Delhi HC was on a plea by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, who sought directions to the MHA to decide his representation seeking cancellation of Gandhi’s Indian citizenship. In his plea, he further sought a direction to the ministry to furnish a status report on the representation filed by him against the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
WHAT IS THE PIL ABOUT?
In July, the HC had allowed Shishir to withdraw a similar petition and granted him the liberty to pursue remedies under the Citizenship Act. He has again moved the court for a decision on his representations.
Shishir told the court that after withdrawing his earlier petition before the high court, he submitted two representations to the competent authority in the MHA. The court had clarified that its focus as of now was solely on whether the central government had received the representations and what decision or action it proposed to take.
