Lucknow, May 14 (UNI) The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking cancellation of the citizenship of senior Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.

The petition also sought a ban on Gandhi's foreign travel while his citizenship issue was pending. It may be noted that this is the third petition filed by social activist S Vignesh Shishir challenging Gandhi's citizenship.

His earlier petitions were also dismissed by the court. However, the court allowed Shishir to withdraw the present petition with liberty to file a review of the earlier order passed on May 5 on his second petition.

A division bench of Justice A R Masoodi and Justice Ajay Kumar Srivastava passed the order on a fresh PIL filed in connection with the issue of Rahul Gandhi's citizenship.

The court said the petitioner has submitted a representation before the central government, and it cannot enter the field unless something legally justified is presented before it. The court allowed Shishir to withdraw the present petition with liberty to file a review of the previous order.

The petitioner alleged that he had a video in which Gandhi was seen entering Vietnam with a British passport. He alleged that the UK government had sent the passport to the Indian government.

The petitioner claimed, "I have 200 pages to show that Gandhi is a UK citizen."

However, the court was not satisfied with the arguments and refused to consider the petition. The previous order (May 5) was dismissed as withdrawn with liberty to file a review.

UNI AB BD