Sonia Gandhi is an Indian citizen. Allahabad HC puts the matter to rest
On 16 May 2014, Sonia Gandhi got elected to Parliament from Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli constituency. However, Rakesh Singh, a disgruntled member of the constituency, who had earlier challenged Sonia Gandhi's "citizenship" and was rebuffed by the Supreme Court in 2010, moved the Allahabad High Court in an election petition, contending that her election to Parliament be cancelled.
However, the high court, in a ruling by Justice Tarun Agarwala, has held, following the ruling of the Supreme Court in the Hari Shankar Jain Case (2001) that Sonia Gandhi is an Indian citizen. The court relied upon Section 5(1)(c) of the Citizenship Act and Article 84 of the Constitution of India to arrive at this ruling.
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This case assumes significance because the present ruling dispensation has frequently made Sonia Gandhi's, nee Antonia Maino's citizenship issue a rife topic for political disputes, debates, and even distasteful jibes. One just has to look at the comments of ex- Telecom Minister Pramod Mahajan in order to get an inkling.
A twist in the tale
More importantly, the court's observations - that the petitioner's contentions were not only repetitive, but also devoid of legal merit - were scathing. The court said that Rakesh Singh's contentions, argued by Senior Advocate Hari Shankar Jain, were not only "feeble", but also politically motivated because Jain, in 2009, had unsuccessfully contested against Sonia Gandhi, and lost.
There is another twist in the tale. Singh had also contended that by hosting the Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid - Syed Ahmad Bukhari, who, on 4 April 2014, had issued a mass appeal to vote for the Congress party, Sonia had indulged in a corrupt electoral practice under Section 123 (3) of the Representation of People Act.
But the court tossed out this claim, holding that if Sonia didn't ask for votes in the name of Christianity, she cannot be held guilty of any offence.
This ruling ought to bring a quietus to the great Sonia Gandhi citizenship dispute, but then, politics is always a boiling cauldron.
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First published: 12 July 2016, 10:01 IST
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