In the matter of allegations related to the citizenship of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court has taken an important decision and has currently put on hold its earlier instructions to register an FIR. The court has said that it is necessary to give Rahul Gandhi an opportunity of being heard before any criminal proceedings.
The single bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi, while hearing the case, found that it would not be appropriate to directly direct the registration of FIR without hearing the concerned party. The court, in its April 17 order, had earlier quashed the decision of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM), Lucknow, which had refused to register an FIR against Rahul Gandhi in January.
However, the court later reconsidered its order citing an important 2014 judgment Jagannath Verma vs. State of Uttar Pradesh. According to this decision, section 156(3) CRPC An order rejecting an application under the Act is not treated as interlocutory and can be challenged under criminal revision.
The court said that in cases where there may be possible criminal proceedings against a person, he has the right to present his side before the final decision. The court noted in its order that during the hearing, the petitioners and their lawyers had argued that there was no need to give notice to the proposed accused. But considering the available legal position, the court considered that it would not be appropriate to decide on this application without giving notice.
The court said, “It appears that this application should not be disposed of without giving notice to the party concerned. It is necessary to give all the parties an opportunity to present their views before the court on this issue.”
Subsequently, the High Court issued a revised order on April 18, suspending its earlier direction. Now the next hearing of the case has been scheduled on April 20, where the court will consider whether an order to register an FIR against Rahul Gandhi should be made or not.
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