Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow bench on Monday disposed of a petition questioning Rahul Gandhi’s Indian citizenship and allowed the petitioner to explore alternative legal remedies, PTI reported.
S Vignesh Shishir, a BJP worker from Karnataka, had claimed in a PIL that he possesses documents and some emails of the British government which prove that Rahul is a British citizen, and hence the Congress leader is ineligible to contest elections in India and cannot be a Lok Sabha member.
A bench of Justices AR Masoodi and Rajiv Singh said that as the Central government is not able to give any time limit to resolve the petitioner’s complaint, there is no justification to keep the plea pending.
In the previous hearing on April 21, the high court was told that the Centre had written to the UK government seeking details about claims that Rahul had British citizenship.
The bench had granted time till May 5 for the Central government to place before it the outcome of a representation moved by the petitioner against Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul, seeking cancellation of his 2024 Lok Sabha election over claims that he had British citizenship.
That deadline got over on Monday. Disposing of his plea, the high court told Vignesh he is free to adopt other alternative legal remedies.
The petitioner had earlier told the court that he twice sent complaints to competent authority regarding Rahul’s alleged dual citizenship, but no action was taken.
The PIL was heard on November 25, when the court sought information from the Union government about its decision on the Vignesh’s representation.
