04-06-2005, 09:44 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Prez had sought file on Sonia's citizenship </b>
PTI/ New Delhi
President APJ Abdul Kalam had in April last year summoned the file of a PIL challenging his predecessor KR Narayanan's decision to invite Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for consultations on Government formation in 1998, the petitioner's counsel said in the Delhi High Court on Wednesday.
During the hearing on Rashtriya Mukti Morcha's (RMM) petition against Narayanan's decision to invite a naturalised citizen to hold a constitutional post, senior counsel PN Lekhi said President Kalam had summoned the court file in April last year.
The court, however, did not make any comment on Lekhi's statement which was made in the context of the delay in deciding the case pending since 1999.
Terming it as an issue of utmost importance, Lekhi urged the court to fix any working Saturday to exclusively hear the PIL.
"Allowing a person of foreign origin to run the government or a political party would be subversion of the Constitution," he submitted.
The recognition of a political party, headed by a person of foreign origin, can be cancelled under the Election (Symbols) Order, 1968, the senior counsel said.
The court fixed July 23, a Saturday, for exclusively hearing the matter.
In its petition filed in 1999, RMM had urged the court to declare that no person, who is not a citizen of India within the meaning of Article 5 of the Constitution, has the right to be elected or appointed to any public office.
RMM had also sought derecognition of all such political parties whose office bearers were not citizen within the meaning of Article 5 of the Constitution
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PTI/ New Delhi
President APJ Abdul Kalam had in April last year summoned the file of a PIL challenging his predecessor KR Narayanan's decision to invite Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for consultations on Government formation in 1998, the petitioner's counsel said in the Delhi High Court on Wednesday.
During the hearing on Rashtriya Mukti Morcha's (RMM) petition against Narayanan's decision to invite a naturalised citizen to hold a constitutional post, senior counsel PN Lekhi said President Kalam had summoned the court file in April last year.
The court, however, did not make any comment on Lekhi's statement which was made in the context of the delay in deciding the case pending since 1999.
Terming it as an issue of utmost importance, Lekhi urged the court to fix any working Saturday to exclusively hear the PIL.
"Allowing a person of foreign origin to run the government or a political party would be subversion of the Constitution," he submitted.
The recognition of a political party, headed by a person of foreign origin, can be cancelled under the Election (Symbols) Order, 1968, the senior counsel said.
The court fixed July 23, a Saturday, for exclusively hearing the matter.
In its petition filed in 1999, RMM had urged the court to declare that no person, who is not a citizen of India within the meaning of Article 5 of the Constitution, has the right to be elected or appointed to any public office.
RMM had also sought derecognition of all such political parties whose office bearers were not citizen within the meaning of Article 5 of the Constitution
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