The Delhi High Court was on Wednesday informed that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was probing a PIL filed in the Allahabad High Court against the alleged British citizenship of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Appearing virtually before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, the petitioner in the Allahabad High Court said that he has appeared before CBI and tendered very confidential evidences.
The matter was presently under the investigation by CBI. Since the proceedings in the Allahabad High Court were at very advanced stages, the case was leading to multiplicity of proceedings, said Vignesh Shishir, BJP member from Karnataka and petitioner in the Allahabad High Court.
He sought some time to place on record the relevant documents on the development that has taken place in his PIL before the Allahabad High Court.
The Bench directed Shishir to file an affidavit within two weeks, along with an application for impleadment in the matter. It then listed the case for further hearing on December 6.
The Delhi High Court was today hearing a PIL filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy seeking direction to the Union Government to file a status report on his complaint against the Congress leader.
The Bench orally remarked that the PIL pending before the Allahabad High Court involved ‘wider’ prayers, adding that it did not want two parallel proceedings to be maintained on a similar issue.
Appearing in person, Swamy submitted that the issue was raised by him in 2017 and that the prayers in the two cases were not similar.
Advocate Satya Sabharwal also represented Swamy.
Swamy had written a letter to the Centre in August 2019 against Rahul Gandhi, alleging that the Congress leader voluntarily disclosed to the British Government that he was a citizen of British nationality, amounting to holding a British passport.
Swamy alleged that Gandhi, being an Indian citizen, had violated Article 9 of the Constitution of India, read with the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955. Gandhi would lose/cease to be an Indian citizen, Swamy had claimed.
Article 9 of the Constitution of India states that no person shall be a citizen of India or be deemed to be a citizen of India if he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of any foreign State.
A notice was sent by the Central government to the Congress leader on April 20, 2019.
Swamy had alleged that a company namely Backops Limited was registered in the United Kingdom in 2003, with Gandhi as one of the Directors and Secretary. He further wrote that in the company’s Annual Returns filed in 2005 and 2006, Gandhi’s date of birth was given as June 19, 1970, and his nationality was mentioned as British.
Swamy submitted that despite many representations made to the Central government asking for status update of his complaint, no action has been taken.
He sought direction to the Centre to decide on his complaint or representation at the earliest and to furnish the conclusion or final order of the same.
Earlier in May 2019, the Supreme Court had dismissed a plea to restrain Gandhi from contesting the 2019 general elections till the determination of the ‘dual citizenship’ issue upon his supposedly procuring British citizenship.
Just because a paper said that Gandhi had British citizenship, would he become a British citizen, the top court of the country had remarked. It further said that merely because a company mentioned Gandhi having British citizenship, did not mean he had British citizenship.