New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday allowed BJP leader Subramanian Swamy time to file a copy of the petition pending before the Allahabad High Court on cancellation of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's citizenship.
The bench headed by Chief Justice Manmohan heard the petition seeking directions to Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) over cancellation of Gandhi's citizenship. The next hearing of the case has been listed on November 6.
During an earlier hearing on September 27 it was stated that since the hearing on the matter is underway in Allahabad High Court, it cannot be heard. The High Court had directed ASG Chetan Sharma to inform the court about the status report of the hearing and asked him to provide a copy of the petition filed in Allahabad High Court.
The Chief Justice had said that he would continue the hearing only after seeing the status report of the petition filed in Allahabad High Court, because he does not want Delhi High Court to hear a case under Allahabad High Court's jurisdiction.
During the hearing, Swamy argued he had written to the MHA in 2019 that Gandhi was one of the directors of Backops Limited, a company registered in UK in 2003. The petition stated that the annual income tax returns filed by the company on October 10, 2005 and October 31, 2006 stated that Gandhi is a British citizen.
The petition further stated that in the application filed by the company on February 17, 2009 to dissolve itself, Gandhi was again stated to be a British citizen. Swamy, in his petition, said that being an Indian citizen he violated Article 9 of the Constitution and the Indian Citizenship Act.
Article 9 states that if a person voluntarily takes citizenship of another country, he cannot remain an Indian citizen. The MHA also wrote a letter to Gandhi on April 29, 2019 seeking a clarification within two weeks.
Although more than five years have passed, no clarity has been provided. Swamy urged the court to issue guidelines to the MHA to take a decision in this regard.
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