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In his petition, Swamy sought directions against the Ministry of Home Affairs, to furnish a status report on his complaints against Rahul Gandhi. He claimed that Rahul Gandhi was a citizen of the UK per his ‘voluntary disclosure’ to the British government and therefore could not hold citizenship of India.
The Delhi High Court, on Tuesday, stated that the writ petition filed by former Union Minister and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, seeking directions against the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), would be treated as a public interest litigation. In his plea, Swamy had sought a revocation of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship status.
The bench comprising Justice Sanjeev Narula observed that Swamy’s plea did not pertain to any “enforceable constitutional rights” as expected from a writ petition and sent the matter to the roster bench dealing with PILs, noting that a larger public interest is involved in the matter. A division bench of the court headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan would be dealing with this PIL.
Swamy had approached the Delhi High Court, expressing concerns about the citizenship status of Rahul Gandhi. Swamy had also sought directions against the MHA to provide a status report on this. As per his petition, Swamy had in August 2019 filed an FIR against Gandhi alleging that the latter “voluntarily disclosed” to the British government that he was a British citizen, implying the possession of a British passport. According to the petition, the Ministry did not respond to Swamy’s numerous requests for updates on the FIR.
Swamy, represented by Advocate Satya Sabharwal, had claimed that Gandhi’s possession of British citizenship implied that he had violated Article 9 of the Indian constitution, as well as the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955, as India does not recognize dual citizenship and prohibits its citizens from acquiring the citizenship of other nations. Swamy contended that Rahul Gandhi would cease to hold Indian citizenship. He claimed to have sent many representations to the MHA, seeking updates while accusing them of “delaying the matter and keeping it pending for 4 years and counting”. He thus stated that he saw no other alternative remedy other than approaching the court.
However, the MHA claims that they had written to Gandhi in April 2019, asking him to intimate his factual position on this matter.
Swamy had further alleged that Rahul Gandhi had been recognized as a British citizen by a private company, Backops Limited, registered in the UK in 2003. According to the BJP leader, Gandhi was one of the directors of this enterprise and had declared his nationality as ‘British’ in its Annual Returns filed in August 2005, and again in 2006.
Notably, the Supreme Court had in May 2019 dismissed a similar petition, filed by Delhi-based Jai Bhagwan Goyal and Chandra Prakash Tyagi, questioning Gandhi’s citizenship. The Apex court bench headed by then Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, while dismissing the plea, observed that “Some company in some form has mentioned Rahul Gandhi as British citizen. So does he become a British citizen?”
Case Title: Dr. Subramanian Swamy v Union of India
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