Telangana HC: Is TRS MLA Ramesh a German citizen?

HYDERABAD: Wondering why it is taking so much time for the central government to ascertain whether a legislator is holding a valid German passport, Justice Challa Kodanda Ram of the

high court

on Wednesday directed the home ministry and the Indian embassy in Germany to inform the court whether Vemulavada MLA Chennamaneni Ramesh is still holding a passport of the European country or not.

The judge was dealing with a plea pertaining to the citizenship issue raised by Adi Srinivas, a Congress leader from Vemulawada, charging the legislator with misleading the authorities with incorrect information about his citizenship. Ramesh had settled in Germany and worked there too prior to his political entry in the state. He was elected as MLA thrice, but could not get out of the citizenship tussle.

According to

Ravi Kiran Rao

, the counsel for Srinivas, Ramesh claimed he surrendered his German passport when he decided to enter politics in the state. “The reality is he did not relinquish his German citizenship till today. He travelled to Germany in December 2019 and even now he is in Germany,” the counsel alleged. The central government had conducted an inquiry and concluded he suppressed certain vital information to re-acquire Indian citizenship. He had to necessarily stay in India for a specific period before applying for Indian citizenship. Though he did not stay in India during the period, he evaded answers in the relevant column that sought replies to specific queries.

The status of citizenship tussle now is that Ramesh claims he relinquished German citizenship and lost Indian citizenship. But Srinivas claims he was misleading the country and the courts with false declarations while retaining his German citizenship even now. The judge directed central government to inform the court by December 16 about the current status of German citizenship of the MLA.