This expanded article provides additional details on the court order that set aside a magisterial court order dismissing a petition against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi for allegedly using forged documents to get her name included in the voter list of 1980.
On Monday, Special Judge Vishal Gogne of Dwarka courts not only ordered the re-examination of a petition filed by Rouse Avenue Court Bar Association Vice President Vikas Tripathi but also directed the magistrate to hear the petition afresh and pass a ‘reasoned order’. The court found that the magistrate's order, dated September 11, 2025, did not provide a reason for dismissing the complaint entirely.
The petition alleges that Gandhi's name was added as a voter of the New Delhi constituency in January 1980, three years before she obtained Indian citizenship. It was deleted from the electoral rolls in 1982 due to irregularities, according to Tripathi. He claims the deletion was due to ‘false documents’ and that her name was re-entered in 1983, the year she obtained citizenship.
In addition to the issues with the magistrate's initial order, the sessions court also pointed out that the trial court had violated provisions of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita by not seeking a status report from the police. It further noted that the magistrate did not discuss the significance of the sequence in which Gandhi’s name was included, deleted and again included in the electoral rolls in 1980, 1982 and 1983.
Tripathi had filed a revision petition before the sessions court challenging the magistrate’s order, following which the court had issued a notice to Gandhi on December 9. On February 6, Gandhi told the court that the complaint was ‘wholly misconceived, frivolous, politically motivated, and an abuse of the process of law’. She argued that the complaint was based on speculative assumptions, media reports and ‘imaginary applications’, without any foundational documents being produced.
The matter will be listed before the additional chief judicial magistrate on September 29.
Source:
Scroll.in
