|
The Rouse Avenue Court on Thursday dismissed a criminal complaint against former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, holding that the plea was legally untenable, deficient in substance, and beyond the scope of its authority.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Vaibhav Chaurasiya observed that the informant had sought to "persuade this Court to assume jurisdiction which, in law, does not vest in it." The judge said the complaint relied only on uncertified photocopies of electoral rolls from 1980 and amounted to "a misuse of the process of law by projecting a civil or ordinary dispute in the garb of criminality." The order stated, "Mere bald assertions, unaccompanied by the essential particulars required to attract the statutory elements of cheating or forgery, cannot substitute a legally sustainable accusation." On the issue of jurisdiction, the court stressed that questions of citizenship fall solely within the Central Government's domain under Article 11 of the Constitution and the Citizenship Act, 1955. Likewise, the power to decide inclusion or exclusion of names in electoral rolls rests with the Election Commission of India under the Representation of the People Acts of 1950 and 1951. Any attempt by a criminal court to adjudicate these matters, the judge said, would amount to an "unwarranted transgression" into constitutionally reserved fields and violate Article 329 of the Constitution. "When the Constitution circumscribes the domain of democratic function exclusively with the Election Commission of India and the Central Government with respect to elections and citizenship, the informant cannot, by way of a private complaint, encroach upon this territory. Whatever cannot be done directly cannot be done indirectly," the order read. The complaint, filed by advocate Vikas Tripathi, had alleged that Sonia Gandhi's name was entered in the 1980-81 electoral rolls before she formally became an Indian citizen in 1983. Seeking registration of an FIR under IPC, BNS, and RPA provisions, it claimed the inclusion involved forgery and fraud. Rejecting the plea, ACJM Chaurasiya dismissed the complaint in limine, calling it an abuse of the process of law. (ANI)
|
