Telangana Government files affidavit in favour of MLA Ramesh's Citizenship in High Court

Karimnagar: The Telangana government has filed its Affidavit in High Court on Thursday in favour of MLA Ramesh Chennamaneni.

The key argument of the Affidavit was that the Central government shall not deprive a person of citizenship under 10 (3) of Citizenship Act, unless it is satisfied that it is not conducive to the public good that the person should continue to be a citizen of India. It underlines the two aspects to the issue of deprivation of citizenship.

First is, whether conduct of person amounted to violation of any of the clauses in Section 10 (2) and if so, as in 10.3, whether by such conduct person's continuation of the Indian citizenship is not conducive to public good. Therefore, it underlines the fact that competent authority is bound by the mandate of Section 10(3) and cannot deprive citizenship of Chennamaneni Ramesh.

The Affidavit reminds the observation of the central government in its Report in July 2017 that Dr Ramesh has no criminal background or no criminal case has been registered against him and he is not involved in any activity of terrorism, espionage, serious organized crime or war crime, which can be considered as public good. It also emphasizes the fact that MLA Ramesh has not concealed any material facts and not mislead the central Government and deprivation was initiated solely on petition by political opponent who lost four consecutive elections.

The HC postponed hearing on the Affidavit for two weeks.