Sonia Gandhi gets birthday surprise: Court notice over voter list issue
New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's 79th birthday has brought legal complications. On the same day she celebrated her birthday, Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court issued her a notice in an old case, seeking her response. The case involves serious allegations that she had registered her name in the voter list before becoming an Indian citizen. The court issued notices to Sonia Gandhi as well as the Delhi Police and scheduled the next hearing for January 6, 2026.
In fact, this entire matter involves a criminal revision petition filed by a person named Vikas Tripathi. The petitioner has challenged the decision of the lower court (Magistrate Court) that refused to order the registration of an FIR against Sonia Gandhi. Special Judge Vishal Gogane issued this notice after hearing the initial arguments of the petitioner's lawyer, Pawan Narang. The petitioner alleges that Sonia Gandhi received Indian citizenship in April 1983, but her name was included in the voter list of the New Delhi parliamentary constituency three years earlier, in 1980.
According to the petitioner's claims, Sonia Gandhi's name was added to the voter list in 1980, then removed in 1982, and re-included in 1983. Senior lawyer Pawan Narang argued in court that if Sonia Gandhi was not an Indian citizen, how did her name appear on the voter list? This clearly implies that some documents must have been forged, fabricated, and falsely prepared. The lawyer told the court that he is not currently seeking a charge sheet, but rather wants the police to at least investigate how her name appeared on the list without citizenship. He explained that the police refused to register an FIR on these facts, forcing him to approach the court.
It is noteworthy that earlier, on September 11th, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia had dismissed this petition. The judge then stated that the issue of citizenship falls squarely within the jurisdiction of the central government, and that the Election Commission was responsible for adding or removing names from the voter list. The court then argued that ordering an investigation into this matter would be an unnecessary interference in the work of constitutional institutions and a violation of Article 329 of the Constitution. Now, the Rouse Avenue Court has taken cognizance of a revision petition filed against this decision and has sought responses from Sonia Gandhi and the police.