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 Ministry of Home Affairs were highly confidential. Accepting the request, the single bench of Justice Rajiv Singh conducted the hearing in his chambers. According to the order issued subsequent to the hearing, Vivek Mishra (under secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs) and Pranav Rai (assistant section officer) appeared before the court with the relevant records. After perusing the records, the court returned them to the under secretary. The next hearing in the matter is scheduled for April 6. The petitioner has challenged an order dated January 28, 2026, passed by the Special MP/MLA Court in Lucknow, wherein the said court had dismissed his application seeking a directive to register an FIR against Rahul Gandhi. htc...