In a temporary relief to Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLA Chennamaneni Ramesh, High Court gave stay on the cancellation of his Indian citizenship on Monday.
Earlier in November, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had cancelled his citizenship on the grounds that he held citizenship of Germany and didn't fulfil the norms while obtaining Indian citizenship in 2009.
Ramesh has also challenged a similar decision by MHA in 2017. Ramesh, who was re-elected to Telangana Assembly in 2018 from the Vemulawada constituency last year, had moved the Telangana High Court again.
Earlier in November, moving the court, he said in the petition that no action should be taken against him, and all procedures must be suspended, until the petition pending in front of the court is disposed of. In July this year, the HC had set aside the MHA order and directed it to hear Ramesh's submissions afresh. It also began hearing the argument put forth by complainant Adi Srinivas, the Congress leader defeated by Ramesh, in the 2009 elections.
Ramesh has alleged that MHA didn't taken the HC order into consideration while issuing fresh orders. Ramesh's counsel argued before HC, during a hearing of the petition filed by Adi Srinivas, that he has already cancelled his German citizenship before taking the citizenship of India.
High Court has directed to produce required documents pertaining to the claim. The Court has postponed the hearing of the case by four weeks while giving 8-week stay on the MHA's decision to strip Ramesh off his citizenship.
Ramesh earlier claimed that he enjoyed Germany’s citizenship from 1993 after submitting his India passport, before he came back to India and joined politics in 2009.
The issue of Ramesh's citizenship has been going on since 2009, when he was elected as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidate. He later joined the TRS and was re-elected in the bye-election in 2010. He was elected to the Assembly again in 2014 and 2018.