Delhi HC grants time to Subramanian Swamy to place docs in Rahul Gandhi's citizenship matter
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted BJP leader Subramanian Swamy time to file a copy of petition pending before the Allahabad High Court on the issue of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's citizenship.
The court was informed by Swamy that he had obtained the copy of the petition and the prayers in that matter are different from that of his pleadings.
A bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked the petitioner to file the documents in electronic form in compliance with its last order and listed his plea for further hearing on November 6.
The bench was hearing a plea by Swamy seeking directions to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to decide his representation seeking cancellation of Rahul Gandhi's Indian citizenship.
Swamy, in his plea, also sought a direction to the MHA to furnish a status report on the representation filed by him against Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
At the outset, Swamy submitted that the matter pending before Allahabad High Court has got nothing to do with his case and the prayers are totally different.
To this, the bench said, "okay we will see."
It had earlier granted time to the petitioner to obtain a copy of the petition that has been filed before the Allahabad High Court.
The Delhi High Court had said a petition on a similar issue was also being heard by its Allahabad counterpart and two courts can't deal with the same issue simultaneously.
It had said before proceeding further in the matter, it will be in the interest of justice to know about the pending petition in the Allahabad High Court.
Swamy's plea, filed by advocate Satya Sabharwal, said that on August 6, 2019, the petitioner had written a letter to the ministry alleging that Gandhi had "voluntarily disclosed" to the British government that he was a citizen of British nationality, amounting to holding a British passport.
Earlier, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court asked the Centre whether it had taken any decision on a representation filed under Citizenship Act, 1955 asking it to inquire into the allegations.
It was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) moved by BJP worker from Karnataka, S Vignesh Shishir, claiming that he has done detailed enquiries into the issue of Gandhi being a British citizen and has got several new inputs.
In his plea in the Delhi High Court, Swamy has said that the Congress leader, being an Indian citizen, has violated Article 9 of the Constitution, read with the Indian Citizenship Act, and would cease to be an Indian citizen
He said he has sent many representations to the ministry inquiring about the status of his complaint but neither any action has been taken nor has he been intimated about it.
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SP has ended contract with I-PAC due to fund constraints: Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday said his party has severed its association with the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) due to a lack of funds.
He dismissed speculations that the termination of contract was because of recent election results.
Addressing a press conference here, Yadav said the party had engaged I-PAC for a brief period ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections but could not continue the arrangement.
"Yes, we had an association. They worked with us for a few months, but we are not able to continue because we do not have that kind of funding," he said.
The I-PAC is a political consultancy firm known for managing major election campaigns across the country.
Election strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor has also been associated with the organisation in the past and has worked with multiple parties, including the BJP and the Congress.
In a lighter vein, Yadav took a swipe at the ecosystem of political consultancies. "We thought that if we have to work with a 'winning agency', then there are several big companies."
He said that some people suggested conducting surveys, hiring another firm, keeping a social media company, and even engaging agencies for negative campaigning against other parties.
"There are one or two more companies whose names are not yet known. I can get those for you as well," Yadav said.
Yadav rejected the suggestion that the decision to end the deal was influenced by recent election outcomes in states such as West Bengal.
"There is no such thing. Do not ask questions based on baseless reports. That is not true," he said.
"This is not the reason for ending the agreement. We simply do not have enough funds. If you (the media) give us funds, we can hire another company," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.
