Congress leader Sonia Gandhi
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday dismissed a complaint filed against top Congress leader Sonia Gandhi for the offences of cheating and forgery for allegedly giving false information and declaration to secure entry in electoral rolls of New Delhi Parliamentary constituency in 1980, three years prior to acquiring Indian citizenship.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia rejected the complaint filed by one Vikas Tripathi in limine, saying the informant has sought to set the criminal law into motion with the evident object of persuading this court to assume jurisdiction which, in law, does not vest in it.
"The present complaint has been fashioned with the object of clothing this court with jurisdiction through allegations which are legally untenable, deficient in substance, and beyond the scope of this forum’s authority. Such a stratagem constitutes nothing but an abuse of the process of law, which this court cannot countenance,'' the judge said in his four-page order.
The court noted the fundamental ingredients of the offences of cheating and forgery, were conspicuously lacking here.
"Mere bald assertions, unaccompanied by the essential particulars required to attract the statutory elements of cheating or forgery, cannot substitute a legally sustainable accusation,'' it said.
The court pointed out the informant merely relied upon extract of electoral roll ''which is photocopy of photocopy of alleged extract of uncertified electoral roll of the year 1980''.
"Such a course, in substance, amounts to a misuse of the process of law by projecting a civil or ordinary dispute in the garb of criminality, solely to create a jurisdiction where none exists,'' it said.
The court also pointed out the matters relating to citizenship fell in the exclusive domain of the central government. Likewise, the authority to determine the eligibility of a person to be included in or excluded from the electoral roll and electoral offences was vested solely in the Election Commission under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, Representation of People Act, 1951 and the allied enactments.