What’s your stand on Subramanian Swamy’s plea over Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship? Delhi HC asks Centre

Delhi High Court asked the Centre to inform its stand on BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s plea seeking directions to the Ministry of Home Affairs to decide over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Indian citizenship. File
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

The Delhi High Court on Friday (December 6, 2024) asked the Centre to inform its stand on BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s plea seeking directions to the Ministry of Home Affairs to decide over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Indian citizenship.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela orally asked the proxy counsel for the Central government to take instructions from the authorities concerned in the matter.

“We want to have the assistance of the counsel from the state before we pass any order,” the Bench said.

The Court, which was initially inclined to issue a notice on the petition, was informed by the Centre’s proxy counsel that the lawyer who earlier represented the government in the matter was designated as a senior advocate. He therefore sought some time for a new counsel to be engaged in the case.

As Mr. Swamy urged the court to issue notice on his plea, the bench said, “We will see what their (Centre) stand is and will then seek their response if we want.” The bench posted the hearing on January 13, 2025.

Mr. Swamy’s plea, filed by advocate Satya Sabharwal, said on August 6, 2019, a letter was sent to the Ministry alleging Mr. Gandhi had “voluntarily disclosed” to the British government that he was a citizen of British nationality, amounting to holding a British passport.

Mr. Swamy therefore said the Congress leader, being an Indian citizen, violated Article 9 of the Constitution, read with the Indian Citizenship Act, and would cease to be an Indian citizen.

He claimed to have made several representations to the ministry inquiring about the status of his complaint but neither was any action taken nor was he intimated about it.

During Friday’s (December 6, 2024) hearing, Karnataka BJP worker S Vignesh Shishir, who has filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court on the issue of Gandhi’s citizenship, apprised the court of the case’s developments there.

Shishir was previously permitted by the Delhi High Court to file an impleadment application and affidavit mentioning the developments taking place in pursuance to the PIL filed by him in the Allahabad High Court.

While Mr. Swamy has maintained that the matter pending before Allahabad High Court had nothing to do with his case, and the prayers were totally different, Shishir claimed Swamy’s plea was leading to multiplicity and parallel proceedings.