SC dismisses Sonia disqualification PIL

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking disqualification of Congress President Sonia Gandhi's election to Lok Sabha from Rae Bareli and imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 against the petitioners for filing the same.

"It is the most frivolous petition," a bench headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal said dismissing the petition filed by a Varanasi-based advocate and some others.

The court said each person named as respondent in the petition will equally share the cost for filing the frivolous petition. The PIL filed by Santosh Kumar Srivastava and others had sought Gandhi's disqualification on the ground that she was having Rs 13 lakh ancestral property in Italy as such under the scheme of the Constitution she should not have been allowed to contest the Lok Sabha polls.

The PIL had contended that under Article 102 (1D) any person owing allegiance or adherence to foreign country was liable to be terminated from the membership of Parliament.