Rouse Avenue Court in New Delhi has restored a complaint to its hearing docket concerning whether Sonia Gandhi was lawfully enrolled on the electoral rolls in 1980, approximately three years before she formally acquired Indian citizenship in April 1983. A Sessions Court overturned an earlier ruling and remanded the matter to the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, whose previous decision had stopped short of directing that an FIR be lodged against Gandhi.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vinod Joshi, handling MP-MLA cases, scheduled a hearing for 28 October. The matter was assigned to his courtroom through a directive issued by the Principal District and Sessions Judge at Rouse Avenue Court.

On 21 September, a revision petition challenging the Magistrate Court's earlier order came before the Special Judge handling MP-MLA matters, who ruled in its favour. The Sessions Court's ruling annulled the directive the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate had issued in 2025. Advocate Vikas Tripathi, acting as complainant, had brought the legal challenge against that order.

Granting the petition, Special Judge Vishal Gogne held that the complaint had been turned away on the basis of an unverified photocopied document and that the earlier order provided no reasoning to support its conclusions. On 21 September, the Special Judge indicated that the earlier ruling was open to being overturned.

On the question of citizenship jurisdiction, the Sessions Court held that the earlier observation was fundamentally flawed. The bench noted that the contested directive neither addressed whether a cognizable offence had taken place nor adequately disclosed one, and held that its references to the Central Government and the Election Commission on matters of citizenship fell outside the proper scope of such a ruling.

According to the allegations placed before the court, Sonia Gandhi's name appeared in the voter list in 1980. The relevant documentation dates to 1982, with her name formally attached to it the following year. The court noted in its ruling that electoral rolls are intended exclusively for those holding citizenship.

Documents submitted by the complainant led the court to observe that Gandhi's name appeared on the voter roll, with her listed address recorded as Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. In setting aside the contested order, the Sessions Court's written reasoning drew attention to the absence of any explanation in the earlier decision for why the complaint had been turned away. A fresh ruling on the matter has been ordered following the remand.

In its ruling, the appellate body drew a distinction between its own jurisdiction and that of the lower magistrate's bench. The bench called for a status report from the relevant police officer and indicated that a reasoned order would be issued only after that officer had been heard.

Tripathi, identified as a revisionist, put forward the claim that Gandhi's name had been placed on the voter roll before she acquired Indian citizenship.