The Delhi High Court has put on hold its single-judge order of August last directing the Centre to inform in advance all blacklisted Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders and foreigners that they would be denied entry into the country.
‘Disturbing feature’
The single judge had issued the direction after taking note of a number of cases being filed in the High Court on account of foreigners or OCI cardholders not being permitted entry into India when they arrive here and stating that the “disturbing feature” in each was that none of them had any prior intimation that they were blacklisted, despite having a valid visa.
The order was challenged by the Centre before a Bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A.J. Bhambhani which said the directions given by the single judge on August 21 shall not be given effect to till May 1, the next date of hearing. In the August 21, 2018 order, the court had directed the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to ensure that necessary directions are issued to all the officers, who are authorised to issue blacklisting orders, to inform the foreigners/OCI cardholders concerned that they have been blacklisted and their entry into the country would be denied.
The directions came while hearing a petition by a woman, whose husband — an OCI cardholder — was not allowed to enter the country despite having a valid visa. According to the petitioner, her husband is a person of Indian origin and had acquired the citizenship of the United Kingdom in 2006 after spending 17 years studying and working there. She had said that her husband, Naresh Satyanarayan Kumar, was invited to give a key note lecture at a medical conference in Amritsar between August 9 to August 11 and accordingly, both of them had travelled to India on August 8.
On arrival here, Kumar was denied entry and a noting was made on the passport that ‘entry refused’, her plea said.
