Allahabad HC withholds order directing FIR against Rahul Gandhi in alleged British citizenship case

The Allahabad High Court has withheld its order directing a case to be filed against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in response to a petition alleging that he is a British citizen.

Justice Subhash Vidyarthi said that the court will need to hear Gandhi first before passing such a direction.

On Friday, the judge had dictated an order in open court directing that a first information report should be registered against the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha in response to a petition by S Vignesh Shishir, who claims to be a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Karnataka unit.

The judge said in the written order that during the hearing, the court had asked the petitioner and the lawyer appearing for other parties whether a notice was required to be issued to Gandhi. The lawyers contended “that there is no requirement of issuance of a notice to the proposed accused”, the court said.

The judge, however, said that before the judgment ordering an FIR could be typed and signed, the court came across a judgment by a full bench of the Allahabad High Court from 2014.

The full bench verdict had held that a magistrate’s order rejecting an application under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the registration of a...

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