Lucknow: Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi landed in major legal trouble on Friday after the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to investigate the allegation that he holds dual citizenship..
The UP government can carry out the investigation by itself or get it conducted by referring the matter to a central agency.
The Court passed the order after hearing a petition filed by S Vignesh Shishir, a BJP worker, challenging a January 28 order of a special MP/MLA court in Lucknow, which had rejected his plea seeking registration of an FIR against the Congress leader, as reported by NDTV.
It was not competent to decide issues relating to citizenship, the lower court had held.
Shishir, a resident of Karnataka, has sought registration of an FIR and a detailed probe, levelling allegations under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Official Secrets Act, the Foreigners Act and the Passport Act.
The petitioner has claimed that he has documents and some emails of the British government which prove that Rahul Gandhi is a British citizen, and due to this he is ineligible to contest elections in India and cannot hold the post of a Lok Sabha member.
The complaint was initially filed before a special MP/MLA court in Rae Baraeli. On December 17, 2025, the high court transferred the case to Lucknow. The petitioner subsequently moved the high court after his plea was dismissed by the Lucknow court.
