The Allahabad High Court has issued a significant directive to the Government of India regarding the long-standing controversy surrounding the citizenship of Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi. A Division Bench comprising Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and Justice Kshitij Shailendra has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to provide a clear update on the status of a 2019 representation that alleged Gandhi holds British citizenship. The Court’s intervention comes in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the registration of an FIR against the Congress leader for allegedly "misrepresenting" his citizenship status to hold public office in India.
The petitioner, S. Vignesh Shishir, a resident of Karnataka, contended that documents from a defunct British company named Backops Limited, where Gandhi was a director, listed his nationality as "British." The petitioner argued that under Article 9 of the Constitution of India, any citizen who voluntarily acquires the citizenship of a foreign state automatically ceases to be an Indian citizen. Consequently, the plea sought to disqualify Gandhi from his seat in the Lok Sabha and initiate criminal proceedings for a violation of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Passports Act.
During the hearing, the Court noted that the Ministry of Home Affairs had previously issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi in April 2019, asking him to clarify his "factual position" on the matter following a complaint by former MP Subramanian Swamy. However, the petitioner alleged that there has been no visible progress or final decision from the Ministry in the seven years since that notice was issued. The High Court remarked that the matter cannot remain in a state of perpetual limbo and that the executive must take a definitive stand on the validity of the documents presented.
The Union government's counsel informed the Court that the matter is still "under consideration" and that the process of verifying foreign records involves complex international legal protocols. The Bench, however, emphasized that the citizenship of a Member of Parliament and the Leader of Opposition is a matter of profound national importance. The Court held that the government is duty-bound to inform the public and the judiciary whether the allegations have been found to be substantiated or if the representation has been dismissed after due inquiry.