A Delhi court on Tuesday issued notices to former Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the Delhi Police, directing them to file their responses to a criminal revision petition. The petition seeks the registration of a criminal case against Gandhi on charges of cheating and forgery, alleging that her name was included in the 1980 voters’ list of the New Delhi Parliamentary constituency even though she acquired Indian citizenship only in April 1983.
Special Judge Vishal Gogne issued the notices to Sonia Gandhi and the Delhi Police while hearing a criminal revision petition filed by one Vikas Tripathi. Tripathi has challenged an earlier order of a magisterial court that had refused to direct the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against Gandhi for the alleged wrongful inclusion of her name in the electoral roll in 1980, three years before she became an Indian citizen.
On September 11, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACMM) Vaibhav Chaurasiya dismissed Tripathi’s original application. The ACMM held that the petitioner was attempting to invoke the provisions relating to the offences of cheating and forgery against Sonia Gandhi, but the fundamental ingredients necessary to constitute these alleged offences were completely absent.
The magisterial court pointed out that Tripathi’s plea rested on mere bald assertions that lacked the essential particulars required to attract the statutory elements of cheating or forgery. The petitioner was relying solely on an extract of the electoral roll, which the court described as “a photocopy of a photocopy of the alleged extract of the uncertified electoral roll of the year 1980.”
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The ACMM observed, “Such a course, in substance, amounts to a misuse of the process of law by projecting a civil or ordinary dispute in the garb of criminality, solely to create a jurisdiction where none exists.”
Further elaborating, ACMM Vaibhav Chaurasiya ruled that the court lacked the authority to adjudicate questions that, by express constitutional and statutory mandate, fall exclusively within the domain of the Central Government in matters of citizenship. Similarly, the authority to determine a person’s eligibility for inclusion in or exclusion from the electoral roll rests solely with the Election Commission of India.
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The magisterial court concluded, “It becomes manifest that the present complaint has been fashioned with the object of clothing this court with jurisdiction through allegations which are legally untenable, deficient in substance, and beyond the scope of this forum’s authority. Such a stratagem constitutes nothing but an abuse of the process of law, which this court cannot countenance.”
It was on these grounds that ACMM Vaibhav Chaurasiya dismissed Tripathi’s plea seeking the registration of an FIR against the former Congress President. Aggrieved by this dismissal, Tripathi approached the sessions court with the present criminal revision petition, leading Special Judge Vishal Gogne to issue notices to Sonia Gandhi and the Delhi Police for their responses.
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