Lucknow | A judge of the Allahabad High Court on Monday recused himself from hearing a plea related to the alleged dual citizenship controversy involving Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and requested the Chief Justice to assign the matter to another bench.
Justice Subhash Vidyarthi, while passing the order, acknowledged that a notice should have been issued to Gandhi, the proposed accused, before dictating his earlier order in open court on April 17.
Hearing the plea earlier, the judge had dictated an order directing the Uttar Pradesh Police to register an FIR against Gandhi, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, in connection with the alleged dual citizenship issue.
However, when the order was uploaded on the court's website on April 18, it noted that before the order could be finalised and signed, the judge became aware of a binding precedent of the high court mandating the issuance of notice to the proposed accused before passing any such order.
Subsequently, instead of signing the order, the judge posted the matter for further hearing on April 20 to consider the question of issuing notice to Gandhi.
In his order on Monday, Justice Vidyarthi clarified that it was mandatory to hear the proposed accused before passing any order in the case.
During the hearing, the judge also took exception to certain social media posts made by the petitioner, S Shishir Vignesh, a BJP worker from Karnataka.
"The messages posted by the petitioner on social media after passing of the order on April 17 amount to casting aspersions on this Court and, keeping those in consideration, I find it appropriate to recuse from hearing this case," he said.
Expressing displeasure over the lack of proper legal assistance, Justice Vidyarthi observed, "I am pained to note that the lawyers appearing in this case have failed to perform their duty of providing assistance to the Court in a fair manner."
The petitioner has sought registration of an FIR and a detailed probe, levelling allegations under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Official Secrets Act, the Foreigners Act and the Passport Act.
During earlier hearings, the bench had asked the Centre about action taken on a complaint alleging Gandhi's British citizenship and had summoned records from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Although the records were produced, the court chose not to examine them.
The complaint was initially filed before a special MP/MLA court in Rae Bareli. On December 17, 2025, the high court transferred the case to Lucknow.
