Allahabad HC disposes of Rahul Gandhi's citizenship case as Centre fails to give timeline for providing information

Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday disposed of the double citizenship case against former Congress president and leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi as the Centre failed to provide a timeline to furnish the information sought by the court in the matter.

A division bench comprising Justices AR Masoodi and Rajiv Singh, however, gave the petitioner S Vignesh Shishir, a BJP member and Karnataka based lawyer, the liberty to pursue alternative legal remedies in the matter.

The court had earlier granted ten days time to the Centre to clearly state if Rahul was an Indian citizen and had fixed May five for further hearing of the matter.

On Monday the Centre sought further time stating that it had not yet received the required information from the British government. It also expressed its inability to provide a timeline to furnish the information.

The court said as the Centre was not able to give a timeline to resolve the petitioner’s complaint, there was no justification to keep the petition pending.

Shishir had filed a petition in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad HC in July last year claiming that Rahul also held British citizenship. The petitioner demanded cancellation of Rahul’s Indian citizenship and also his disqualification from the membership of the Lok Sabha.

He claimed that he had in his possession some documents and e-mails which ‘proved’ that Rahul was a ‘British citizen’ and was not qualified to contest elections in India.

He also said in his petition that he had approached the competent authority with a complaint in this regard twice but there was no action and as a result he had filed the petition.