New Delhi

A Delhi court on Thursday dismissed a plea seeking action against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi over allegations that her name was included in electoral rolls three years before she became an Indian citizen. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia rejected the plea.

The complaint was filed by Vikas Tripathi, who alleged that in January 1980, Gandhi’s name was added as a voter in the New Delhi constituency despite her not being an Indian citizen at that time. Senior advocate Pavan Narang, representing Tripathi, argued that citizenship is a prerequisite for electoral inclusion and questioned why Gandhi’s name was removed from the rolls in 1982, along with her late husband Sanjay Gandhi, whose name was deleted following his death in a plane crash. Narang suggested that the Election Commission must have found discrepancies, prompting the deletion.

He further pointed out that Sonia Gandhi’s name was re-entered in the electoral roll in 1983, after she acquired Indian citizenship. The plea, filed under Section 175(4) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, sought directions for the police to investigate alleged forgery and misrepresentation by public authorities. Narang requested the court to direct the police to register an FIR under the appropriate legal provisions.

The court, however, dismissed the plea, concluding that there was no basis to initiate a formal investigation into the matter. Gandhi’s inclusion and subsequent deletion and re-entry in the electoral rolls were therefore not deemed unlawful by the magistrate.

The decision brings relief to Sonia Gandhi, who has been at the center of repeated scrutiny over her citizenship and electoral history, reinforcing that legal and procedural safeguards had been followed in the handling of her voter registration.