New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed with costs a petition challenging the election of Congress president Sonia Gandhi to the Lok Sabha on the grounds that she still owed allegiance to Italy and hence was not a citizen of India.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice C K Thakker and Justice R V Raveendran imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on petitioner Santosh Kumar Shrivastava and others, who are practicing advocates of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, for filing a frivolous petition.
The petitioners had alleged that in her affidavit filed before the returning officer at the time of filing her nomination papers, Sonia Gandhi had mentioned that she owned a house in Italy, which she had inherited from her ancestors and this fact amounted to having allegiance to a foreign state.
The petitioners had also contended that she has not taken the citizenship of India and she continued to be a citizen of Italy, and the constitution of Italy says that a person born there cannot become the citizen of another country and hence she cannot become an Indian citizen.
It was also alleged in the petition that people, who are not citizens of India, can neither become voters nor can they contest elections and hence not only the election of Sonia Gandhi was liable to be set aside, she should also be debarred from contesting elections in the future.
The court dismissed the petition as frivolous, saying it was a case of gross misuse of PIL as well as the process of court.
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