Trouble for Rahul Gandhi? PIL in Allahabad High Court seeks CBI probe into his alleged British citizenship

First Published Sep 13, 2024, 2:44 PM IST | Last Updated Sep 13, 2024, 2:44 PM IST

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea has been moved before the Allahabad High Court to direct the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register a regular case (RC) under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against Congress leader and LoP in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and conduct a detailed probe into his alleged British citizenship. The PIL plea also seeks to set aside Gandhi's election as an MP from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat on the ground that he is not an Indian Citizen but a British citizen and, thus, was ineligible to contest the Lok Sabha polls.

According to Live Law, the plea also submits that Gandhi ceased to be a citizen of Bharat the day he acquired British citizenship. If he acquired Bhartiya citizenship after 2003/2006, he should have filed the same with his nomination paper. It adds that, as a British Citizen, he is disqualified from being chosen as a Member of Parliament given the provisions contained in Article 84 (a) of the Constitution of Bharat.

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The petition has been moved by BJP Karnataka member S. Vignesh, who claims that he has received certain information from VSS Sarma, a Canadian Citizen, regarding an official communication by the UK Government concerning Gandhi's British Citizenship.

Notably, a PIL plea filed by the same petitioner regarding the same subject matter was dismissed as withdrawn by the High Court.

In its order dated July 1, 2024, the High Court had, said that the petitioner would be at liberty to approach the competent authority under Section 9(2) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, regarding the issue, as far as it is permissible in law.

In his recent PIL, petitioner Vignesh claims that after his earlier PIL plea was dismissed, he moved a detailed representation before the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is still pending. It stated that the petitioner made detailed enquiries into the issue, got several 'new inputs', and sent emails to the UK government seeking details about Gandhi's citizenship records.

In this process, the petition further states that he learned that the UK government has already received a request from one VSS Sarma seeking the details in 2022. After that, Vignesh contacted Sarma, who agreed to share the 'confidential' emails he received from the UK government.

The PIL petition alleges that in those 'confidential' emails (of 2022), the UK government indicated that it has records of Rahul Gandhi's British nationality, and such 'personal data' is governed by the UK General Data Protection Regulations as per the Country's Data Protection Act, 2018. However, the mail further states that the government can't provide information about Gandhi unless the UK govt gets a signed letter of authority from Gandhi.

Against this backdrop, the PIL plea claims that the alleged mail from the UK government is an 'outright admission' that Gandhi is a citizen of the United Kingdom.

Therefore, the PIL seeks that CBI conduct a detailed probe into the matter, get a Letter of Rogatory from a competent court in India and extract all the government records and information available with the government of the UK/Britain regarding Gandhi's citizenship.

The plea also prays for a direction to the Chief Election Commissioner, Chief Electoral Officer UP, and Returning Officer, Raebareli, to cancel Gandhi's electoral certificate.

Notably, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has also filed a petition in the Delhi High Court regarding Rahul Gandhi's citizenship.

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