Hyderabad: Granting some relief to Dr Ramesh Chennamaneni, TRS MLA from Vemulawada, the Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the joint secretary of the Union home ministry to hear afresh the objections raised by the MLA regarding his citizenship under section 10(3) of the Citizenship Act.
Justice P. Naveen Rao was dealing with the petition of Dr Ramesh, challenging the order of the Union home ministry, which had ruled that he was not an Indian citizen and dismissing his review application on December 13, 2017.
Mr Y. Rama Rao, counsel for Dr Ramesh, submitted that the Union ministry had set aside the citizenship of the petitioner in a “mechanical” way. Citing section 10(3) of the Citizenship Act that clearly asks the authorities not to mechanically declare persons as ineligible to be Indian citizens, the counsel said that this provision was never examined by the officials. “The Union home ministry officials did not look at the case from the purview of 10(3),” Mr Rama Rao said.
Section 10(3) says the Union government sho-uld not deprive a person of citizenship unless it is satisfied that it is not conducive to the public good that the person should continue as a citizen of India.
The court, while setting aside the Union ministry’s order, gave it 12 weeks’ time to examine the issue afresh, this time under 10(3) to decide the matter.
The case grew out of Adi Srinivas of the BJP, who contested from Vemulawada in 2014 and lost to Dr Ramesh, approaching the High Court and challenging the election of Dr Ram-esh from Vemulawada, stating that he was not an Indian citizen bec-ause under the rules of the Citizenship Act he had not stayed in India for the requisite period of time, and so his election becomes null and void.
The High Court ruled against Dr Ramesh, who took the matter to the Supreme Court which directed the home ministry to inquire into the issue.
The home ministry conducted an inquiry and ruled in August 2017 that Mr Ramesh was not an Indian citizen. Mr Ramesh put in a review application, which too was dismissed in Dece-mber 2017. Aggrieved by this, Dr Ramesh filed a fresh plea before the HC.
