The Allahabad High Court has withheld its order for registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in connection with a case alleging that he is a British national holding a UK passport..Justice Subhash Vidhyarthi on April 17 had 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 has now opined that it might have to hear Gandhi first before passing such a direction.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."Court had dictated a judgment in the open court. However, before the judgment could be typed and signed, the Court came across a judgment rendered by a Full Bench of this Court in the case of Jagannnath Verma and others Vs. State of U.P. and others: 2014 SCC OnLine Alld 11859, wherein the Full Bench has held that an order of a Magistrate rejecting an application under Section 156(3) Cr.P.C. for the registration of a case by the police and for investigation, is not an interlocutory order. Such an order is amenable to the remedy of a criminal revision under Section 397. In proceedings in revision under Section 397, the prospective accused or, as the case may be, the person who is suspected of having committed the crime, is entitled to an opportunity of being heard before a decision is taken in the criminal revision," the Court said..The Court noted that during the hearing, it had put a specific question to the petitioner as well as the counsel appearing in the matter for the State and Union government on whether a notice was required to be issued to Gandhi."All of them submitted that there is no requirement of issuance of a notice to the proposed accused while deciding an application under Section 173(4) read with 175(3) BNSS and, therefore, no notice needs to be issued to the proposed accused-opposite party no.1 while deciding an application under Section 528 BNSS challenging the validity of an order rejecting an application under Section 173(4) read with Section 175(3) BNSS," it said.Finding that it needs to give the parties an opportunity to address the Court on this aspect of the matter, the Bench has now listed the matter for hearing on April 20.No formal notice has been issued to Gandhi yet. .The order for FIR against Gandhi was passed yesterday in a plea filed by S Vignesh Shishir from Karnataka. He had 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 moved the trial court. However, after the trial court rejected his plea, he moved the High Court.The complainant had earlier also asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to cancel Gandhi's Indian citizenship on the on the alleged 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..[Read Order]
