Delhi HC acknowledges public interest in Swamy’s writ, lists it as PIL
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said that the Writ Petition filed by BJP leader and former Union Minister Subramanian Swamy seeking directions to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to decide his plea to revoke the Indian citizenship of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be treated as Public Interest Litigation (PIL). Justice Sanjeev Narula sent the case file to the roster bench dealing with PILs observing that Swamy had failed to demonstrate any “enforceable constitutional rights” for issuance of writ directions to the MHA.
However, the Court noted Swamy’s stand that public interest is involved in the matter and, therefore, said that the matter will be listed as a PIL before the roster bench dealing with PILs. A Division Bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan is seized from the PIL roster. “We have not commented anything on merits,” Justice Narula clarified. The next hearing will be before the Chief Justice headed the bench, scheduled on September 26, said Subramanian Swamy in an X post:
Today Delhi High Court Single judge Bench after hearing at length my Rahul Gandhi case of his British Citizenship and hence he must give up his India citizenship, came for hearing. The Court then transferred the case to Chief Justice double bench for final hearing on Sept 26th.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) August 20, 2024
During arguments, Swamy said that this violates Article 9 of the Constitution of India and the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955. He said that despite more than five years having passed after his letter, there is still no clarity from the MHA as to what decision has been taken on it. Swamy argued his case in person. He was assisted by Advocate Satya Sabharwal. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma appeared for the Union of India.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has approached the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to decide his representation to cancel the Indian citizenship of Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi. The plea was filed as a writ petition.
In 2015, Subramanian Swamy made public documents of the British company – BackOps – owned by Rahul Gandhi which shows Rahul Gandhi declared himself to the British Company Registry as a British citizen. Though a Member of Parliament from 2004, in these British company documents Rahul declared himself as a British citizen from 2003 to 2009.
The company was liquidated in 2009 and Rahul was also shown as a resident of London, while hiding his Indian address and Parliament Member. Rahul was a major shareholder of this company and the Director & Company Secretary of this British firm BackOps, engaged in many defence sector deals. Rahul also held a British bank – Barclays Bank’s London Branch – account under a curious name – Raul Vinci till December 2014. His MPhil Certificate from Cambridge also names him as Raul Vinci.
After making these documents public, in 2015, Lok Sabha’s Ethics Committee issued a show cause notice to Rahul Gandhi. However, the Committee headed by L K Advani did not pursue it. Later in 2017, Swamy filed a complaint to MHA, and a Show Cause Notice was issued to Rahul Gandhi in April 2019.
The MHA wrote to Rahul Gandhi on April 29, 2019, asking him to “intimate the factual position” in this regard within a fortnight. Swamy has argued that despite more than five years having passed after his letter, there is still no clarity from the MHA as to what decision has been taken on it. Swamy many times wrote to MHA in 2019 to take action on his complaint.
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