Lucknow, May 27 The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday deferred the hearing on a petition questioning the citizenship of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, observing that the matter cannot be listed till an application seeking recall of earlier observations by the court is decided.
The petition filed by Karnataka-based BJP worker S Vignesh came up for hearing before Justice Manish Mathur of the Lucknow bench after Justice Subhash Vidyarthi had recused.
Justice Mathur said that the petitioner has filed an application seeking recall of the April 20, 2026, observations by Justice Vidyarthi and, therefore, the main petition should be listed before him only after disposal of that application by the same judge.
Justice Vidyarthi had on April 17 orally dictated in open court an order directing registration of an FIR and investigation against Rahul Gandhi in connection with the dual citizenship allegations. However, before signing the order in chambers, the judge realised that no adverse order against the accused could be passed without first issuing notice and granting him an opportunity of hearing.
Consequently, the order was not signed and the matter was posted for hearing on April 20.
During the April 20 hearing, Justice Vidyarthi had expressed strong displeasure over comments made by petitioner Vignesh on social media regarding the court proceedings.
The judge had also made sharp observations against the counsel in the case, saying they had failed to properly assist the court on the correct legal position, and had also recused himself from the case.
The chief justice had then assigned the case to Justice Manish Mathur.
Meanwhile, Vignesh moved an application seeking the recall of the observations made by Justice Vidyarthi on April 20. At the previous hearing, Justice Mathur had observed that such a recall application should ordinarily be placed before the same judge who had passed the order.
Accordingly, Justice Mathur directed that the main petition be listed before his bench only after the recall application is decided.
