Lucknow, March 20 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Thursday heard the citizenship dispute case involving Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

The court granted permission to the petitioner S Vignesh Shishir, a BJP worker from Karnataka, to implead the central government as a party to the case.

However, the court rejected the petitioner's request to list the matter as 'Part Heard,' observing that the case remains at the admission stage.

Earlier in the day, as soon as the proceedings commenced, assistant advocate general and senior advocate SB Pandey, appearing on behalf of the central government, requested the court that the hearing not be conducted in open court, as the documents submitted by the ...