SC posts petition on foreign origin issue for final disposal

NEW DELHI, July 14: A petition on whether a person of foreign origin can hold public office was today posted by the Supreme Court for final hearing after eight weeks.The order came on the petition filed by Rashtriya Mukti Morcha (RMM), a socio-political organization, taking exception to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi being invited to form Government at the Centre by the then President in 1999 after NDA lost a no-confidence motion in Parliament.The apex court had in April last year issued notices to the Centre and the Election Commission on the issue.However, the Centre did not file any affidavit and asked a bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan to post the matter for final hearing.The Election Commission said that its stand will be the same as that of the Centre.The Court posted the matter for hearing after eight weeks. When the matter had come for hearing on April 14, last year, the court had said that an important Constitutional issue had been raised in the petition.However, the apex court had made it clear that it would examine the issue in context of the persons who are citizens by registration.The Bench had said: “We will confine the question whether the person who is not born in the country can be appointed to a public office.” The RMM, in its petition, has challenged the Delhi High Court verdict which had dismissed its plea on the ground that it lacked merit.Senior advocate P N Lekhi, appearing for the RMM, had submitted, Gandhi, a citizen by registration, was invited to form the Government when she was not even an MP.The petition had contended that a political party cannot be headed by a person who has assumed citizenship by registration.Lekhi had claimed that after the last general election Gandhi wanted to be Prime Minister but the President perhaps had said that the question of foreign origin was before the court. PTI source: sentinel assam