New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday dismissed a plea seeking probe against senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi alleging she was included in electoral rolls three years before acquiring Indian citizenship in 1983.
Observing the issue of citizenship squarely fell under the “exclusive constitutional and statutory mandate of the central government”, additional chief judicial magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia said, “Such a course, in substance, amounts to a misuse of the process of law by projecting a civil or ordinary dispute in the garb of criminality, solely to
create a jurisdiction where none exists.”
The complaint, the court said, was “fashioned with the object of clothing the court with jurisdiction through allegations which are legally untenable, deficient in substance, and beyond the scope of this forum’s authority”.
“Such a stratagem constitutes nothing but an abuse of the process of law, which this court cannot countenance,” it added. The complaint was filed by advocate Vikas Tripathi, vice president of the Central Delhi Court Bar Association of the Rouse Avenue courts.
Tripathi’s counsel, senior advocate Pavan Narang, alleged in January 1980, Gandhi’s name was added as a voter of the New Delhi constituency when she was not an Indian citizen.
He claimed “some forgery” and a public authority being “cheated”.