Allahabad HC dismisses PIL plea over Rahul Gandhi's citizenship issue as withdrawn
LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday dismissed as withdrawn a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking cancellation of the citizenship of Rahul Gandhi and a ban on his overseas travel while the matter is pending, after expressing doubt over the authenticity of the documents presented by the petitioner.
A division bench of the Lucknow bench, comprising Justice Attau Rehman Masoodi and Justice Ajai Kumar Srivastava-I, questioned petitioner S Vignesh Shishir, a BJP worker from Karnataka, about the legitimacy of the foreign passport he claimed Rahul Gandhi possessed.
'Who verified the UK passport and who is the issuing authority?' the bench asked, further enquiring whether the authenticity of the passport had been established.
In response, Shishir told the court that he had a video of Rahul Gandhi holding a passport of another country. The bench then suggested, 'File an RTI. We cannot help you.'
This was Shishir's third PIL on Gandhi's citizenship issue. The earlier two pleas had been disposed of without any effective relief. The latest PIL was filed four days after his second one was dismissed by the same bench.
In that hearing, on 5 May, the court had granted Shishir the liberty to explore other legal remedies, after the Centre informed it that it could not provide a timeline for resolving the issue.
While dismissing the current petition, the bench observed that there was no new or relevant material to seek the court's indulgence and permitted the petitioner to withdraw it, with liberty to file a review of the order.
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