Fresh PIL In Allahabad High Court Seeking Cancellation Of Rahul Gandhi's Citizenship, Ban On Foreign Travel

The plea has been filed by BJP Member Vignesh Shishir four days after his PIL seeking a CBI investigation into Gandhi's citizenship was disposed of by the HC.

The division bench had, however, granted liberty to Shishir to explore other legal remedies as the Centre informed it that it could not specify a timeline for making a decision on the matter.

A fresh PIL plea has been moved before the #AllahabadHighCourt seeking cancellation of Congress leader and LoP Rahul Gandhi's citizenship.

The plea also seeks a ban on him to travel abroad during the pendency of his citizenship issue. pic.twitter.com/XhXbKdzLBS

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) May 9, 2025

The PIL plea, which will come up for a hearing next week, prays for a direction to the Union Of India to cancel Gandhi's Indian Passport since he is not the citizen of India and to register a criminal case against him as per provisions of section 12 of The Passports Act, 1967, for providing false information to obtain Indian Passport.

Shishir's plea also states that if Gandhi is not restrained from travelling outside India till the pendency of the petition, there is a high probability that he will abscond /flee and seek asylum in a foreign nation to evade the process of law in India.

In his previous petition, Shishir had sought a direction to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), the Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh, and the Returning Officer of Raebareli to cancel Gandhi's electoral certificate. In his plea, he also sought a CBI probe into his alleged British citizenship.

Notably, he has also moved a detailed representation-cum complaint to the Foreigners Division, Ministry of Home Affairs, wherein a request has been made to cancel Gandhi's Indian citizenship. The representation has been moved as per Rules and Regulations of S. 9 (2) of the 1955 Act r/w Rule 40 (2) of the Citizenship Rules 2009 and Schedule III of the 2009 Rules.

For context, Section 40 of the 2009 Rules deals with the Central Government's authority to determine whether, when, or how any citizen of India acquired the citizenship of another country.

Vignesh had moved this representation following the dismissal of a similar PIL plea (filed by the same petitioner) that was withdrawn earlier, with a liberty to the petitioner to approach the competent authority under Section 9(2) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, as far as it is permissible in law.

His PIL plea also stated that he made detailed enquiries into the issue, got several 'new inputs', and sent emails to the UK government seeking details about Gandhi's citizenship records.

In this process, the Petition further stated that he learned that the UK government had already received a request from one VSS Sarma (respondent no. 14) seeking the details in 2022. After that, he (PIL petitioner-Vignesh) contacted Sarma, who agreed to share the 'confidential' emails he received from the UK Government.

The PIL petition had also alleged that in those 'confidential' emails (of 2022), the UK Government has indicated that it has records of Rahul Gandhi's British Nationality.