Telangana HC confirms former BRS MLA Chennamaneni Ramesh is German citizen; slaps Rs 30L fine

Hyderabad: Telangana High Court on Monday slapped a fine of Rs. 30 lakh on former BRS MLA Chennamaneni Ramesh

Telangana High Court confirmed that former Vemulawada MLA Chennamaneni Ramesh is a German, not an Indian citizen.

The court asked him to pay Rs. 25 lakh to his opponent and another Rs. 5 lakh to the High Court Legal Service Authority.

The High Court also dismissed the petition filed by Chennamaneni Ramesh.

Background of the case

Ramesh was born on February 3, 1956 in the erstwhile Karimnagar district. His father Chennamaneni Rajeshwara Rao was a prominent CPI leader in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.

In 1999, Rajeshwara Rao joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and was elected as an MLA in 2004. He retired from active politics in 2009.

Ramesh also is the nephew of former Maharashtra governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao. In the 2009 Assembly elections Ramesh was elected to the assembly for the first time from Vemulawada Assembly constituency on behalf of the TDP.

Ramesh won with a majority of 1,821 votes over Congress leader Adi Srinivas. He objected to Ramesh's citizenship after the election results and approached the High Court in this regard.

Ramesh Babu left the TDP and joined the TRS (now BRS) in the wake of the political developments that took place after that. The TRS public representatives at that time resigned from their MLA positions and went to the by-elections following the Telangana movement.

In 2010, with Ramesh's resignation, a by-election was held for the Vemulawada assembly seat. Ramesh won this election too and continued his winning streak for twice in the 2014 and 2018 Assembly elections.

In 2023, the BRS denied MLA ticket to him due to his pending citizenship case in the High Court. Then, the chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) appointed Ramesh as the advisor to the government on agriculture affairs with Cabinet rank on 25 August 2023 for a five-year term.

Why did Chennamaneni Ramesh moved to Germany?

In the early 1990s, Ramesh moved to Germany for work, and in 1993, he gave up his Indian passport to become a German citizen. He went back to India in 2008 and petitioned for Indian citizenship, which the MHA granted him. In the 2009 elections, he was elected from the Vemulawada assembly constituency.

Ramesh approaches judiciary against Ramesh's citizenship

After Ramesh won the 2009 elections, Adi Srinivas filed a petition in the High Court against Ramesh's citizenship. He also even approached the Election Commission during the 2010 by-election.

At that time the EC ordered to stop the Vemulawada by-election. Then the TRS filed a petition in the High Court and it directed to conduct the by-election as usual. Adi Srinivas appealed to the Supreme Court. Based on a petition filed by Adi Srinivas in 2013, the High Court ordered the cancellation of Ramesh's MLA position.

Ramesh approached the Supreme Court and got a stay over High Court's order. In December 2017, Ramesh's citizenship was revoked by the orders of the Union Home Ministry.

The Ministry of Home Affairs revoked Ramesh's Indian citizenship in November 2019 on the grounds that he had previously had German citizenship and had not complied with the requirements to become an Indian citizen in 2009.

Ramesh filed a petition in the High Court seeking cancellation of the notification issued by the Center revoking his Indian citizenship.

During the hearing on this petition, Additional Solicitor General Surya Kiran Reddy argued in the High Court that Ramesh has citizenship of two countries.

According to Section 10 of the Citizenship Act, Section 7 of the Act states that Ramesh has the status of Citizen of India. Reddy also informed the court that law does not allow holding citizenship under different categories in two places.

The Center has suggested Ramesh to give up one of the two citizenships. The documents related to the two citizenships were produced by the Centre before the Court.

After hearing the arguments from the both sides, the High Court reserved its verdict and on Monday pronounced its verdict slapping a fine of Rs 30 lakh on Ramesh.