Lucknow: The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that questioned the citizenship status of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, alleging he holds dual citizenship of India and the United Kingdom.
The PIL was filed by S. Vignesh Shishir, a BJP worker from Karnataka, who claimed that Gandhi’s alleged British citizenship renders him ineligible to contest elections under Article 84(a) of the Indian Constitution.
During the hearing, the court directed the central government to provide an update on any action taken in the matter. After reviewing the submission, the court chose to dismiss the case.
Previously, the bench had expressed dissatisfaction with a status report submitted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which failed to directly address whether Rahul Gandhi is an Indian citizen. The court then gave the MHA 10 days to submit a revised report with a clear stance on Gandhi’s citizenship.
The controversy traces back to 2019, when the MHA issued a notice to Gandhi following a complaint by then-Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy. Swamy alleged that a company named Backops Limited, registered in the UK in 2003, listed Rahul Gandhi as one of its directors and secretaries.
According to Swamy, Gandhi had declared his nationality as British in the company’s annual returns filed in 2005 and 2006 and again in a dissolution application in 2009.
Despite these claims, the High Court ultimately found no grounds to proceed with the PIL and closed the matter.
