Supriya Sule in citizenship soup as Bombay High Court rejects her plea

Supriya Sule, daughter of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and a member of Parliament (MP) from Baramati, will go on trial to determine whether she owes allegiance to a foreign country, where she purchased property and had other investments in tandem with her husband.

The Bombay High Court on Friday rejected her application seeking dismissal of the petition that had stated she should be disqualified from the elections.

The issue of Sule's citizenship and her disqualification was raised in the election petition filed by Mrinalini Kakade, who lost the last Lok Sabha election against Sule.

Justice JH Bhatia said the Central government had decided on the issue of whether Sule is an Indian citizen and has acquired citizenship of Singapore, but it (the government) has not decided whether she owes adherence or allegiance to foreign country.

"The election petition cannot be thrown away merely because the Central government decided that respondent (Sule) has not renounced Indian citizenship or has not acquired citizenship of another country," observed justice Bhatia.

Kakade has demanded that Sule be declared non-Indian, since she acquired citizenship of Singapore by purchasing property there. According to Singapore's rules, a person has to be citizen of that country to be able to purchase property.