Justice Subhash Vidyarthi of Allahabad HC recuses from hearing British nationality case against Rahul Gandhi

Justice Subhash Vidyarthi of Allahabad High Court on Monday recused from hearing the petition seeking criminal proceedings against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for allegedly holding a passport of the United Kingdom.

Justice Vidyarthi had last week said that the Court would first examine whether it needs to hear Gandhi before passing a direction for registration of First Information Report (FIR) against him.

However, the Court has now referred the matter for listing before another Bench. The petitioner S Vignesh Shishir confirmed the development to Bar & Bench.

The Court had on April 17 found a prima facie case against Gandhi and dictated a judgment in open court granting liberty to the State to refer the case to the Central government for its investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

However, the Court later opined that it might have to hear Gandhi first before passing such a direction. Hence, the judge withheld the earlier order passed by him.

This was after it came across a judgment of the High Court as per which the suspect has to be heard before the Court can direct investigation by the police.

Following the Court's decision to not proceed with the direction for FIR against Gandhi, Shishir in a post on X had demanded that the order dictated in open court be made public.

"In this extra ordinary circumstances which has occured in last 24 hours. I would like to Request All The People of India to kindly urge the Hon'ble Chief Justice of India to kindly Direct the Hon'ble Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court at Lucknow Bench to kindly type and upload the Judgement which is dictated and pronounced in Open Court as matter pertains to National Security of India and Concerning Larger Public Interest of Every Indian Citizen about a Foreign National sitting in Lok Sabha Since Last 22 years," Shishir wrote.

Shishir, who is from Karnataka, in his plea has sought registration of a criminal case against Gandhi under various provisions of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Official Secrets Act, Passport Act and the Foreigners Act.

His claim is that Gandhi was the Director of the UK-based company Backops Ltd and in its records, he had declared his nationality as British. 

After the police failed to register a case on the complaint, Shishir had moved the trial court. However, after the trial court rejected his plea, he moved the High Court.

The complainant had earlier asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to cancel Gandhi's Indian citizenship on the ground that he has already acquired the British citizenship.  

In August 2025, the High Court directed the Union government to provide personal security officer (PSO) of Central Armed Police Forces to Shishir for his round-the-clock security.