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Journalism of Courage
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed that former BJP MP Subramanian Swamy’s plea related to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship be listed before the bench dealing with public interest litigations (PILs) after Swamy failed to demonstrate the “legally enforceable right” under which the court can issue directions. In a writ petition, Swamy had sought the high court’s directions to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to file a status report on his complaints against Gandhi.
Swamy, assisted by advocate Satya Sabharwal, submitted before the court of Justice Sanjeev Narula that on August 6, 2019, he had written to the MHA on alleged violations made by Rahul Gandhi in voluntarily disclosing his British citizenship. He also submitted that Gandhi could not hold both British and Indian citizenship. The MHA had issued a notice to Gandhi on the said complaint.
However, Swamy contended that despite repeated representations made by him to the MHA asking for an update on the status of his complaint, no action has been taken or intimated to him to date.
With Swamy appearing in person to make his submissions before the court of Justice Sanjeev Narula, the judge remarked that a legally enforceable right has to be demonstrated for the court to issue directions as a writ of mandamus under Article 226 (of the Constitution). Justice Narula instead suggested that the same can be pursued in the PIL jurisdiction.
The court thus directed that the matter be listed before a bench that takes up PILs and kept the matter next for consideration on September 26.
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