No FIR against Rahul as Allahabad High Court stays order

Lucknow: A day after directing registration of an FIR against former Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in the dual citizenship matter, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Saturday stayed its own order stating that the matter should not be decided without hearing the other party.

The court fixed April 20 for further hearing of the matter.

The Court, in its order, referred to an earlier judgement of the full bench of the Court, and said that notice should be given to the other party before passing any order.

A single bench comprising Justice Subhash Vidyarthi had on Friday ordered registration of an FIR against Rahul while allowing a petition filed by Karnataka BJP worker Shishir Vignesh challenging the order of the special MP/MLA Court which had, in January this year, rejected his petition seeking revocation of Rahul’s Indian citizenship and registration of an FIR against the Congress leader, who he claimed was also a British citizen.

The HC had said in its order that the matter needed to be investigated and that the investigation might be conducted by the state government or by a central agency.

Earlier in January this year, a special MP/MLA court here had rejected a petition seeking revocation of  Congress leader’s Indian citizenship and registration of FIR against him.

The lower court had said that it did not have jurisdiction in the matter and also added that the petition was a misuse of the judicial process. It said that the court did not have the jurisdiction to decide citizenship or any issue concerning the same.

The petitioner Shishir Vignesh, a BJP leader from Karnataka, had contended that Rahul was a British citizen. He claimed that he was in possession of documents which supported his contention.

The petitioner had also sought registration of an FIR against Rahul under various sections of the IPC and the Official Secrets Act 1923 as well as revocation of his Indian citizenship.