The Sessions Court at Rouse Avenue on Tuesday sent a notice to Sonia Gandhi while hearing a revision petition that challenged the Magistrate's September order, which had dismissed a complaint accusing her of being wrongly included in the 1980 to 1981 electoral rolls.

The direction was given by Sessions Judge Vishal Gogne after he listened to the initial arguments made on behalf of the revisionist.

Senior Advocate Pavan Narang, who represented the revisionist Vikas Tripathi, said the issue needed to be looked at again because the documents already on record pointed to serious irregularities in the way Sonia Gandhi's name was added to the electoral roll before she became an Indian citizen.

He said that "certain documents must have been forged and falsified to get the name in the electoral roll of 1980," and he pointed out that her name was later removed and then added again in 1983 based on an application filed in January 1983, both of which he said happened before she received citizenship.

Narang said that the Representation of the People Act allows only an Indian citizen to be added as a voter, and he argued that the entries raised questions that needed judicial attention.

He also said that although the original complaint relied on an article with clips of the electoral rolls, the revisionist had now collected attested copies from the Election Commission and placed them on record to support the claim.

After hearing these submissions, Judge Gogne issued notice to both respondents, including Sonia Gandhi.

The prosecutor accepted the notice on behalf of the State. The Court also ordered that the Trial Court Record should be summoned so the issues raised in the revision could be fully examined.

The matter will now be heard again on January 6, when the Sessions Court will continue reviewing the challenge to the Magistrate's decision to dismiss the complaint at the initial stage.

The revision petition is based on a complaint filed by advocate Vikas Tripathi, which the Magistrate had rejected at the very beginning, saying it lacked legal backing and was based only on uncertified photocopies of electoral records from 1980. The Magistrate had also said that matters of citizenship and electoral rolls fall only under the authority of the Central Government and the Election Commission of India and cannot be decided through a criminal complaint.