Supreme Court moved to disqualify Rahul Gandhi over citizenship

The Supreme Court has been moved on Monday to disqualify Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for declaring himself as a British national in various documents filed before the Registrar of Companies, United Kingdom.

In a public interest writ petition, advocate M.L. Sharma annexed the documents in which Mr Gandhi has declared himself as British during the certificate of incorporation of a private limited company, viz. Backops Ltd in 2003 and annual returns before the Registrar of Companies, UK.

Mr Sharma said he was constrained to seek court intervention as there has been no response to his representation in this regard before the concerned authorities. He said the present petition raised important constitutional questions, viz. whether a person, declaring himself as a British national, can continue as a citizen of India; whether an affidavit filed by Mr Gandhi before the Election Commission during the Lok Sabha polls in Amethi in 2004 and 2009 is not a fraud if the deponent has already declared himself as a British citizen; and whether manipulation of nationality by Mr Gandhi for acquiring membership of the Lok Sabha is not liable for prosecution under IPC Sections 420 and 467, coupled with seizure of his Indian passport.

Mr Sharma pointed out that in the affidavit filed while contesting from Amethi, Mr Ganhi has merely mentioned that he is a resident in Delhi without disclosing that he is an Indian. As a result, he had suppressed the fact that he is a British national as per his declaration before various authorities in the UK.

Asserting that a fraud and forgery has been committed by Mr Gandhi, the petitioner sought a direction for ordering a CBI probe and a direction to register a criminal case against him and consequently to disqualify him from being a member of Parliament.