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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Shiv Sena (UBT) extends support to Congress after Haryana poll debacle
New Delhi: The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena extended support to its ally Congress after the party's loss in the Haryana Assembly elections. While the Congress faced criticism for its defeat, the Shiv Sena mouthpiece expressed concern over alleged irregularities in the vote counting process and questioned the parole release of rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim just days before the elections.
The Sena editorial highlighted Congress’ complaint to the Election Commission (EC) regarding a delay in updating the election results, which they claimed allowed the BJP to overturn their initial lead. The EC has since denied the allegations, calling them baseless. The editorial, however, argued that the EC’s response did not adequately address the Congress’ concerns, particularly the sudden surge in the BJP’s vote tally after a delay in data updates.
Referring to Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini’s pre-poll statement that “all arrangements” were made for the BJP’s victory, the editorial questioned how the party managed to secure a win when anti-incumbency factors and local protests, including those by farmers and wrestlers, were seemingly against them.
The Sena also took a dig at the BJP for the parole release of Gurmeet Ram Rahim. Released six days before the election for the 10th time in two years, the Dera Sacha Sauda chief reportedly asked his followers to vote for the BJP. The Congress had earlier flagged this as a violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
Despite their backing of the Congress, the Shiv Sena was not devoid of criticism. The editorial advised the Congress’ Maharashtra unit to take lessons from the Haryana defeat to avoid a similar fate in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections, adding that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition remains confident of victory in the state.
In Haryana, the BJP secured 48 of the 90 seats, with the Congress trailing at 37. The results were seen as a major setback for the Congress, which was predicted to win according to exit polls but fell behind due to what it termed an "unexpected" shift in results during counting.
