Two petitioners filed a plea in the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking a direction to the Centre and the Election Commission to debar Congress president Rahul Gandhi from contesting the Lok Sabha elections till the issue of his citizenship is decided.

The court has not offered any date for hearing it.

The home ministry recently served a notice to Rahul, asking him to clarify within a fortnight his 'factual position' on a complaint questioning his citizenship status.

Petitioners Jai Bhagwan Goyal and C.P. Tyagi have alleged that since prima facie evidence in this regard has been produced before the home ministry and the election panel, Rahul should not have been allowed to contest the ongoing Lok Sabha elections from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Wayanad in Kerala. The plea, filed by advocate Barun Kumar Sinha, also sought a direction to the Election Commission to remove Rahul's name from the 'electoral roll till the decision of the question of acquisition of his British citizenship'.

The plea was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

The lawyer appearing for the petitioners told the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, that the matter be heard next week. 'We will see,' the bench said.

In a recent letter to Rahul, the ministry had said it has received a representation from Subramanian Swamy in which it has been brought out that a company named Backops Limited was registered in the UK in 2003 with Rahul Gandhi as one of its directors.

The ministry had said Swamy's letter mentioned that in the British company's annual returns filed on October 10, 2005, and October 31, 2006, Rahul's date of birth was given as June 19, 1970, and his nationality as British.