Allahabad High Court: In a writ petition filed by S Vignesh Shishir, who filed a case against Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship, seeking Y-Plus Category Security cover from Central Armed Police Force (‘CAPF’) on an All India Basis, the Division Bench of Sangeeta Chandra and Brij Raj Singh, J., allowed the petition by granting personal security to the petitioner.
Background
The petitioner contended that he has assisted the investigating and intelligence agencies in several cases relating to income tax evasion, money laundering, left-wing extremism in LWE areas, foreign funding in NGOs, election financing cases, benami transactions, terror financing, corruption cases, etc.
He contended that he had filed a complaint to the Central Bureau of Investigation (‘CBI’) in 2024 against Rahul Gandhi, Member of Parliament and Leader of the Opposition, regarding his alleged British citizenship. The petitioner had also filed objections against the candidature of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Member of Parliament.
He contended that he was receiving life threats and coercion because he had filed a public interest litigation against Rahul Gandhi seeking a writ of quo warranto on the ground that he was a British citizen and hid the same to contest the Lok Sabha elections. Aggrieved, he approached the Union and other authorities, including the Prime Minister’s Office (‘PMO’) for security, but either received no response or the matter was pending at some stage.
Hence, the present petition.
The Union contended that there was a Witness Protection Scheme, and since the petitioner received threats, which were palpable in nature, the Court may pass an appropriate order for providing security to the petitioner so that he could at least pursue his case without fear.
Analysis
Upon perusal of the writ petition, the Court stated that it was, prima facie, satisfied that the matter required consideration as the petitioner had been pursuing his cases against a very powerful individual and was facing constant threats, and had to appear before the Investigating Officer in pursuance of the case filed by him against Rahul Gandhi.
Accordingly, as an interim measure, the Court directed the Union to provide the facility of one Personal Security Officer of CAPF round-the-clock forthwith to the petitioner. In the meantime, the Ministry of Home Affairs shall ensure that a counter affidavit regarding any decision, if any, taken on the petitioner’s representation forwarded by the PMO to the aforesaid Ministry.
The case was listed for 09-10-2025.
[S Vignesh Shishir v. Union of India, 2025 SCC OnLine All 5444, decided on 28-08-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For the petitioner: Petitioner in person
For the respondent: Deputy Solicitor General of India Senior Advocate S.B. Pandey, Advocate Anand Dwivedi, and Standing Counsel
