Lucknow: Avoiding open court hearing and showing utmost caution with documents attached with the case file in a disproportionate assets case filed against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, a Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court on Wed ordered that the entire copy of the writ petition should be to be kept in safe custody of the court registrar.The bench of Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan and Justice Zafeer Ahmad deferred the hearing till May 12 as the counsel for the central and state agencies had sought time to obtain written instructions in the matter.The court passed the order on a writ petition filed by Karnataka BJP worker S Vignesh Shishir, who had earlier filed another plea against Rahul raising the issue of his dual citizenship. The petitioner has leveled serious allegations against Rahul for allegedly amassing huge wealth from unknown sources.The petitioner has made Central government, CBI, ED, CBDT, UP Police and Director, Serious Fraud Investigation Office, New Delhi as the opposite parties in the petition and sought direction from the court to order inquiry in the matter.The petition was filed in the HC on April 25, 2026 and its first hearing took place on May 6, 2026. The judges conducted the hearing in their chamber and after the hearing, directed that the entire copy of the writ petition be sealed before them and the same shall be kept in the custody of the senior registrar of the HC.The judges further ordered the senior registrar to put up the said case file before it on May 12 at 2.15 pm for hearing in the chamber again. “The seal shall be opened by the Bench Secretary of this Court on the next date of listing,” the judges ordered.When the hearing started, the petitioner had moved an application for issuance of direction to preserve the records of the present writ petition in safe custody. The bench recorded in its order that the petitioner had argued at length, after which the counsel for the opposite parties demanded short time to obtain written instructions in the matter for the respective governments and agencies. Agreeing to this, the bench posted the next hearing on may 12.
