Rahul Gandhi moves Supreme Court against Allahabad High Court orders in case over his assets

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has moved the Supreme Court challenging various orders passed by Allahabad High Court on a petition alleging that he possesses assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The matter is listed before a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana on August 17.

Gandhi has also filed a separate transfer petition along with his plea challenging the High Court orders.

In May, the High Court had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to verify the claims made by BJP worker S Vignesh Shishir, who has sought probe against Gandhi and other members of his family.

Last month, the Court asked the CBI to file a fresh affidavit detailing the status of its inquiry. Expressing dissatisfaction with the CBI's response, the High Court in its July 20 order observed,

"The counter affidavit of CBI does not appear to be a counter affidavit in terms of earlier order. Even we are unable to understand about the progress of the investigation done by the CBI."

The bench of Justice Brij Raj Singh and Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan also observed that the ED had taken the required steps and was free to proceed further if the investigation yielded material warranting action.

The Court had even directed that the case continue as a part-heard matter before the same bench and be listed on August 20.

Gandhi has challenged these directions before the apex court.

In a separate pending petition, Shishir has sought criminal action against Gandhi alleging violations of citizenship laws, claiming that the Congress leader held a British passport in addition to his Indian one.

In that case, the Court had initially ordered a first information report (FIR) to be registered against Gandhi.

However, the judge later withheld that order and recused himself from the matter after Shishir made certain posts on social media in relation to the case.

That matter is also pending before the High Court.