Telangana Rashtra Samithi legislator Chennamaneni Ramesh, from Vemulawada assembly constituency in Siricilla district, is likely to get disqualified from his assembly membership, if the developments in the state high court are any indication.
While Chennamaneni told the court that he had already relinquished his German citizenship and submitted relevant documents to the government to that effect, counsel for the Union home ministry rejected his contention.
Counsel for petitioner Adi Srinivas also told the court that Chennamaneni had taken Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card in Berlin in 2019 and in his application for the OCI card, he had mentioned his nationality as Germany.
“The MLA has come to India on OCI card and travelling to Germany on German passport. When he got Indian citizenship in 2009, he had German passport, which was valid till 2013. If he claims himself to be an Indian, why did he get renewal of German passport till 2023? He should have applied for Indian passport,” the petitioner’s counsel argued.
The high court also questioned Chennamaneni’s lawyer as to why he had mentioned his nationality as Germany in the OCI card.
“It appears the MLA has to get ready to face the elections in his constituency,” the high court said and deferred the case to August 24.
Chennamaneni’s lawyer tried to put up an argument that passport was absolutely a travel document and had nothing to do with citizenship.
He argued that as per Section 10 (3) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, no person can be deprived of the citizenship unless the government is satisfied that it is not conducive to the public good if the person should continue to be a citizen of India”.
He said Chennamaneni has no criminal background or no criminal case has been filed against him. He has not been reportedly involved in any activity of terrorism, espionage, serious organized crime or war crime. Therefore, the Centre should explore this section and revoke the cancellation of his citizenship, he argued.