Two petitioners filed a plea in the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking a direction to the Centre and the Election Commission to debar Congress president Rahul Gandhi from contesting the Lok Sabha elections till the issue of his citizenship is decided. The home ministry recently served a notice to Rahul, asking him to clarify within a fortnight his "factual position" on a complaint questioning his citizenship status. The plea, filed by advocate Barun Kumar Sinha, also sought a direction to the Election Commission to remove Rahul's name from the "electoral roll till the decision of the question of acquisition of his British citizenship". The plea was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. The lawyer appearing for the petitioners told the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, that the matter be heard next week.

Source: The Telegraph May 02, 2019 09:11 UTC