The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, comprising Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Om Prakash Shukla, inquired on Wednesday about the Centre’s response to a representation under the Citizenship Act, 1955, concerning allegations against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s purported British citizenship.
The court’s query came during a session addressing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by S Vignesh Shishir, a BJP worker from Karnataka. The PIL claims to possess substantial new evidence, including confidential emails from the UK government, suggesting that records of Gandhi’s British nationality exist, though the UK government has withheld specific details citing them as “personal data” protected under the General Data Protection Regulations of the UK’s Data Protection Act, 2018.
Shishir’s legal action calls for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the matter, asserting that despite his detailed statutory representation to the central government under section 9(2) of the Citizenship Act, no substantial inquiry has been conducted to date. The representation was directed to the Union Home Ministry, urging the cancellation of Gandhi’s British citizenship if proven true.
The court noted that this was not the first attempt by the petitioner to challenge Gandhi’s citizenship status; a previous plea was withdrawn, granting him liberty to approach the competent authority directly. Given the gravity of the allegations and the involvement of international jurisdictions, the court has set September 30 as the next hearing date.
