New Delhi, April 16: The Supreme Court today issued a notice to the government on a petition saying people like Sonia Gandhi, who are not Indian-born citizens, cannot hold constitutional posts.

The bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, however, objected to any direct reference to Sonia, who is not a party to the case.

The NGO, Rashtriya Mukti Morcha, moved the apex court after Delhi High Court dismissed its petition saying it had no merit.

The petition was filed in the high court in 1999 after then President K.R. Narayanan invited Sonia to form the government. The Lok Sabha was, however, later dissolved as she could not muster the support of a majority.

Arguing for the NGO in the apex court, senior counsel P.N. Lekhi said no country allows a foreign-born citizen to hold a constitutional post. Lekhi also said a party headed by a person of foreign origin must be derecognised according to the law. Even liberal democracies do not allow this, he said.

Lekhi reminded the court that there was a provision for termination of Indian citizenship of those who had acquired it by naturalisation.

The court, however, said its notice was limited to whether a citizen of foreign origin could hold a constitutional post. Sonia does not hold any such post at the moment.

A rejection of the appeal could sound a death knell for the controversy that keeps cropping up time and again, the bench added.

The petition could give ammunition to the Opposition amid the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. But the BJP was restrained today.

Although senior leaders did not admit it officially, there seemed to be a consensus within the BJP to tread cautiously on the issue that had evoked hysteria in the party just after the UPA came to power at the Centre and Sonia was expected to become Prime Minister.

Before Sonia’s famous “renunciation” of the chair, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj went on to declare that she would shave her head and sleep on the floor as a mark of protest against Sonia becoming Prime Minister. But the reaction only elevated Sonia to greater heights.

The realisation that its leaders may have contributed to the Congress president’s popularity, albeit inadvertently, has made the BJP doubly cautious about “overdoing” the foreign origin issue.

So, while the party was happy that the issue is still alive, none of its leaders went overboard today. “It suits us that the issue is still alive. But our reaction has to be managed carefully,” a senior leader said.

Officially, the BJP merely challenged the Congress to a general debate on whether people of foreign origin can hold constitutional positions. “However, the most important point remains, can the Congress dare to take the lead in this regard?” asked BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad.