New Delhi, 16 May (H.S.):

The hearing in the Rouse Avenue Sessions Court today on a petition seeking the registration of an FIR against Sonia Gandhi over the alleged inclusion of her name in the voter list in 1980 was adjourned.

The hearing was deferred because the lawyer representing Sonia Gandhi was unavailable. Special Judge Vishal Gogne ordered that the next hearing in the matter be held on July 4.

On Saturday, the petitioner filed the Election Commission’s report. Earlier, on April 18, the court had directed both sides to submit written arguments. The petitioner had completed his arguments on April 18. The petition was filed by advocate Vikas Tripathi, who has challenged in the Sessions Court the Magistrate Court’s order dismissing the plea for registration of an FIR against Sonia Gandhi. On December 9, 2025, the court had issued notices to Sonia Gandhi and the Delhi Police.

Earlier, on September 11, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia had dismissed the petition. The petition states that Sonia Gandhi’s name was included in the voter list in 1980, even though she became an Indian citizen only in 1983. It further says that her name was added to the voter list for the New Delhi Assembly constituency in 1980, at a time when she was not even an Indian citizen. Her name was later removed from the voter list in 1982 and re-entered in 1983. Sonia Gandhi became an Indian citizen in 1983.

The petition also says that Sonia Gandhi applied for Indian citizenship in April 1983. It claims that since she became an Indian citizen only in 1983, some forged documents must have been used to get her name included in the voter list in 1980, which would amount to a cognisable offence. It therefore seeks a court order directing the registration of an FIR against Sonia Gandhi. The Magistrate Court had neither issued a notice to Sonia Gandhi nor to the Delhi Police in the matter.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar