Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Congress MP Sonia Gandhi Saturday described as “politically motivated and frivolous” a criminal revision petition before a Delhi court against a 2025 magisterial order that declined to order an FIR over alleged inclusion of her name in electoral rolls in 1980, three years before she acquired Indian citizenship. The petition before special judge Vishal Gogne of Rouse Avenue sessions court alleges that the Italian origin Sonia’s name was added using forged documents. The Congress senior described the claims as “wholly misconceived” and the plea as “abuse of the process of law”. The plea was filed by one Vikas Tripathi, challenging magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasiya’s refusal on Sept 11 last year to order the FIR. Sonia had been sent notices on Dec 9, 2025, over the plea. Judge Gogne noted the reply on Saturday and listed the matter for arguments on Feb 21. In her reply, Sonia said the trial (magistrate) court had rightly held that issues of citizenship fall “exclusively within the domain of the Central govt”, while electoral roll disputes are “vested solely with Election Commission of India“. She argued that criminal courts cannot entertain private complaints disguised as IPC or BNS offences, as this would violate the doctrine of separation of powers and Article 329 of the Constitution, which bars judicial interference in the electoral process. Sonia added that a “controversy raised in the media more than 25 years back” was being recycled to file the revision plea, with allegations that were “speculative and unsupported” by authentic documents, and which failed to specify the documents allegedly forged or their source. Although the plea claims Sonia’s name was “re-entered” in electoral rolls with a qualifying date of Jan 1, 1983, no supporting document was placed on record. “It is incomprehensible on what basis it has been claimed that the respondent got her name re-entered,” the reply states.
