The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court will on Monday hear a critical petition questioning the citizenship status of Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi. The court has asked the Central Government to submit a definitive clarification on whether Gandhi holds Indian citizenship exclusively.
In the previous hearing, the court expressed dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for failing to directly address the core issue and granted 10 additional days to submit a revised report explicitly confirming Gandhi’s citizenship status. The directive came in response to a petition alleging that the Congress leader also holds British citizenship, which would disqualify him from being a member of the Indian Parliament, as Indian law does not permit dual citizenship.
The MHA counsel had earlier requested more time to gather information from the UK government, and the court has now scheduled the matter for a detailed hearing on May 5.
The issue dates back to 2019, when the MHA served a notice to Gandhi following a complaint by former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy. Swamy alleged that Gandhi had served as a director and secretary of Backops Limited, a company registered in the UK in 2003, where he purportedly declared his nationality as British in official filings.
Swamy’s complaint cited the company’s annual returns from 2005 and 2006, as well as its dissolution application in 2009, all of which reportedly list Gandhi’s nationality as British.
The case has reignited political debate over Gandhi’s eligibility to hold public office, with the High Court’s next hearing likely to prove pivotal in settling long-standing questions surrounding the Congress leader’s citizenship.
