The Allahabad High Court has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to submit a detailed report by May 5 on whether Rahul Gandhi holds British citizenship. This question is important because Indian law does not allow dual citizenship. A person is allowed to be a citizen of only one country.

Rahul Gandhi is currently a Member of Parliament (MP) from Rae Bareli. If it is proven that he holds citizenship of another country, it could affect his position in Parliament, since only Indian citizens are allowed to contest and hold such positions.

The issue came up through a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by S. Vignesh Shishir, a lawyer from Karnataka and a member of the BJP. He filed the case in July last year, asking the court to cancel Gandhi's Indian citizenship. The petitioner said he had also reached out to government departments, including the Home Ministry, with no result. So, he went to court as a “last resort.”

Shishir claims that he has emails and documents that can prove Rahul Gandhi has both Indian and British citizenship.

On Monday, the Union Government submitted a status report in court about the matter. However, the Lucknow Bench of the High Court said it was not happy with the details provided in the report. The lawyers for the Union government asked for 10 more days to file a revised report with more details.

The bench, headed by Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Ajai Kumar Srivastava-I, agreed to the request and granted the government time until May 5 to file the revised report.

The next hearing in the case is now scheduled for May 5, when the court will review the updated report.

 

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