The CBI has initiated an investigation into Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship, the Delhi High Court was informed on Wednesday. The case stems from a PIL under review in the Allahabad High Court filed by a BJP worker.
A bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said that they wanted to avoid issuing conflicting orders and emphasised that there cannot be two parallel petitions on the same issue and allowed S Vignesh Shishir to submit an affidavit detailing developments in the Allahabad High Court following his PIL.
The case before the Delhi High Court concerns a plea by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, who requested that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) respond to his representation seeking to revoke Gandhi’s Indian citizenship. Swamy also asked the MHA to provide a status report on his submission against Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
Swamy argued that the Allahabad High Court case was unrelated to his plea, as the issues differed, while Shishir disagreed, contending that Swamy’s case led to duplicative and parallel proceedings.
“I am the petitioner in the Allahabad HC case…the matter had come up for hearing on October 24. MHA has received instructions about my representation and subsequently, I have appeared before CBI and tendered my very confidential evidence and the investigation is pending. Since proceedings are in an advanced stage at Allahabad HC, this (petition before Delhi HC) is leading to multiple litigation in multiple cities…I have also filed my objections before Delhi HC as well…” Shishir submitted.
The court instructed Shishir to submit an application to be included in the Delhi petition and set the next hearing for December 6.
Swamy distinguished between the two cases, explaining that while Shishir’s petition sought criminal prosecution, his own case only argued that Gandhi was not an Indian citizen but instead a “citizen of Britain.”
