The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that alleged Congress MP Rahul Gandhi holds dual citizenship of India and the United Kingdom, which would render him ineligible to contest elections under Article 84 (A) of the Constitution.
The PIL was filed by S Vignesh Shishir, a BJP worker from Karnataka, who claimed that Gandhi was both an Indian and British citizen. During the proceedings, the court directed the Central Government to submit details of the action taken in the matter. After reviewing the submissions, the court dismissed the plea.
In an earlier hearing, the bench had expressed dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for not clearly stating whether Gandhi was an Indian citizen. The court had granted the government 10 days to file a revised report explicitly answering that question.
The controversy dates back to 2019, when the MHA sent a notice to Rahul Gandhi based on a complaint by former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy. Swamy alleged that Gandhi had declared himself a British national in official documents of a UK-based company, Backops Limited, where Gandhi served as a Director and Company Secretary.
According to the complaint, company filings from 2005 and 2006 listed Gandhi’s nationality as British. The dissolution application of the company in February 2009 also allegedly stated the same.
Despite these claims, the High Court found no legal basis to proceed with the petition, effectively putting the matter to rest — at least in the judicial domain — unless further evidence or proceedings emerge.
