The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea seeking direction to the Centre and the Election Commission to debar Congress President Rahul Gandhi from contesting Lok Sabha elections till the issue of his citizenship is decided.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi rejected the contention of the petitioners, who said in a form along with the annual data of a UK-based company in 2005-06, it was allegedly mentioned that Rahul Gandhi is a British citizen.

"If some company in some form mentions his nationality as British, does he become a British citizen," the bench also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna told the petitioners.

Rahul Gandhi's citizenship triggered a massive row in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections. The home ministry had recently served a notice to Rahul Gandhi, 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 alleged that 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".

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.