Delhi Court Refuses To Order FIR Against Sonia Gandhi For Inclusion In Voter List Prior To Acquiring Indian Citizenship

A Delhi Court on Thursday dismissed a plea seeking FIR against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi for getting her name added in the electoral rolls of 1980, three years before getting Indian citizenship, allegedly by using forged documents.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasiya of Rouse Avenue Courts pronounced the order. Detailed copy is awaited.

Order was reserved by the judge yesterday. The plea was filed by Vikas Tripathi seeking criminal action against Gandhi.

Senior Advocate Pawan Narang appearing for Tripathi had submitted that the threshold of being an Indian citizen has to be crossed first before getting a name listed in the electoral roll.

He had said that in order to become a voter, it has to be first verified that a person is a citizen of India or not.

“First you have to satisfy you are a citizen of India… that is the first threshold. After being a citizen, another threshold is that whether once I want to become a voter, a proof of residence is required. Today, may be 12th class certificate is a valid proof as per ECI but at that time, PAN or Aadhar was not there. It used to be passport or ration card. What we are saying is that she has to cross the threshold of being an Indian citizen,” he had said.

Narang then said that Gandhi's name was later deleted from the electoral rolls of 1982.

“What was the reason that her name was deleted in 1982? Something was found by ECI which led to deletion of her name. At that time, only two names were deleted. One was of Sanjay Gandhi who passed away in 1981. And her was the second name. She was still staying there. Why was her name deleted? Because they realised that certain false documents have been created and given. There was uproar and thus the best thing to do is get it deleted. In 1983, again you do the same thing. But forget that. First you have to cross the threshold of 1980,” he had said.

No one appeared from Gandhi's side.

It was Tripathi's case that Gandhi's name was included in the electoral rolls of the New Delhi constituency in 1980, whereas she got Indian citizenship in 1983.

It was his case that Gandhi's name was deleted from the electoral rolls in 1982 and re-entered in 1983. He alleged that the Congress leader used forged documents to get her name included in the electoral rolls, counsel demanded an FIR to be registered against her.