The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh has directed the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against Congress MP from Rae Bareli and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, in a dual citizenship case. A single bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi observed yesterday that the allegations against Rahul Gandhi required examination and directed the Uttar Pradesh government to either conduct an investigation itself or refer the matter to a central agency.

The direction came on a petition filed by BJP worker S Vignesh Shishir, who challenged a 28 January order of a special MP/MLA court in Lucknow. The lower court had rejected his plea seeking registration of an FIR against the Congress MP, stating that it was not competent to decide issues related to citizenship. The complaint was initially filed before a special MP/MLA court in Rae Bareli. On 17 December last year, the High Court transferred the matter to Lucknow. Following the dismissal of his plea by the Lucknow court, the petitioner approached the High Court.