Rahul Gandhi’s British citizenship: Delhi HC asks Home Ministry to reply in three weeks on Subramanian Swamy’s petition

Delhi HC questions Centre on Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship issue

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Union Home Ministry why it has not responded to the petition of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy regarding Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s British citizenship issue, where he is facing show cause notice from the Ministry. Home Ministry in April 2019, issued a show cause notice to Rahul Gandhi on Subramanian Swamy’s complaint based on the documents filed by Rahul in the British company register, declaring himself as a British citizen between 2002 to 2009.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma, who was representing the Central government, to obtain instructions regarding the matter. “The prayer is not to make the decision on the substantive issues of the pending matter in either of the matters pending here or in Allahabad. He is only seeking directions on his representations. Seek instructions then regarding the stage of the proceeding regarding the letter,” the Court told ASG Sharma.

This was after Swamy told the Court that the Home Ministry had issued a show cause notice to Rahul in 2019 asking him to explain his British citizenship. but there was no reply on the part of Rahul Gandhi to the same and no action was taken by the government too after that. “The Government of India, on my letter to the Home Ministry, wrote a show cause notice to Gandhi to explain the data brought on record to show that he is also a British citizenship. Under Indian Law, no Indian can have citizenship of any other country. This was never replied to, no reminders were sent, and no action was taken by the government. The government must complete its responsibility,” Swamy contended. He was assisted by Advocate Satya Sabharwal.

The High Court posted the case for further hearing on March 26 while asking the ASG to obtain instructions on the status of the proceedings with respect to Swamy’s representation. “List on March 26 to enable ASG to complete their instructions, especially keeping in view the document enclosed as Annexure P2 in the petition, which is a 2019 letter issued by MHA,” the Court said, directing MHA to reply in three weeks.

In 2015, Subramanian Swamy brought documents from the British company Registry showing Rahul Gandhi’s statements, declaring himself as a British citizen. The documents show that Rahul floated a company named BackOps Ltd in London between 2002 to 2009. The documents also showed that Rahul was a resident in London during this period, though he was a Member of Parliament from 2004.

Rahul was the Director and Secretary of BackOps Limited, which is believed to have engaged in defence deals in India. Swamy brought out documents that said that in the company’s annual returns filed on October 10, 2005, and October 31, 2006, Gandhi declared his nationality as British. It was further stated that in the company’s dissolution application dated February 17, 2009, Gandhi’s nationality had again been mentioned as British. In his petition, Swamy pointed out that this violates Article 9 of the Constitution of India and the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955.[1]

The Delhi High Court had earlier deferred the hearing in the matter after it was brought to the notice of the Bench that a similar plea was pending before the Allahabad High Court. In that petitioner, one S Vignesh Shishir had sought a CBI probe into Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship, citing the documents brought out by Subramanian Swamy in the public domain.

Reference:

[1] Home Ministry issues Notice to Rahul Gandhi for holding British Citizenship – Apr 30, 2019, PGurus.com

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