Delhi HC asks Centre to respond to academician Ashok Swain's plea against blacklisting order

New Delhi, Nov 14 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the Centre's response on a plea by academician Ashok Swain challenging a purported blacklisting order that barred him from entering India.

Justice Sachin Datta issued a notice on Swain's petition and asked the Union Ministries of Home Affairs and External Affairs, the Embassy of India to Sweden and Latvia and the Bureau of Immigration to file their replies within three weeks.

The high court listed the matter for further hearing on December 18.

Swain, in his plea, said the authorities are acting pursuant to an undisclosed blacklisting order, the content and legal basis of which have neither been communicated to him nor tested on the touchstone of procedural safeguards mandated under the Citizenship Act, principles of natural justice and constitutional protections.

The petition said Swain, professor and head of department at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University in Sweden, has been prevented from entering India on the basis of a purported blacklisting order under the Foreigners Act as is evident from the counter affidavit filed by the Centre in his previous petition.

It cited the Centre's affidavit which stated that "the petitioner, Mr. Ashok Swain, is a Swedish national… and an OCI cardholder… is a professor in Uppsala University, he had been blacklisted and barred from entering into territory of India in view of his anti-India writing and inflammatory speeches that reflected negatively on India and tarnished the image of the country in the international fora".

The high court had earlier twice set aside the Centre's order cancelling the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card of Swain and granted liberty to the authorities to issue a fresh show cause notice to him.

The plea said despite judicial recognition that the powers to regulate entry under the Foreigners Act and powers to cancel the OCI status under the Citizenship Act must be harmoniously construed, requiring procedural fairness to be read into the provisions of the Foreigners Act, the petitioner continues to be barred from entering the country of his origin.

"The respondents have failed to provide any specific reasons or offer an opportunity for a hearing, in direct violation of the due process guaranteed by the Citizenship Act, Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, read along with Article 21 and the principles of natural justice," it said.

Swain sought the court's direction to the authorities to allow him entry in India on his OCI card, call for records pertaining to the purported blacklisting order and quash the blacklisting order or any other order restraining him from entry here.

"… despite two rounds of judicial review, respondents persisted in passing orders and imposing blacklisting based solely on sweeping and bald allegations, the contents of which were never disclosed even to this court.

"Such opacity by the respondents epitomises arbitrariness and the denial of case particulars and refusal to supply evidence vitiates all administrative action under Article 14," the plea said.

Swain has submitted that his aged mother, who lives in India, was unwell and he was the only son and has not been able to visit India in the past several years.

The Embassy of India to Sweden and Latvia on February 8, 2024, had cancelled Swain's OCI Card under the Citizenship Act. PTI SKV SKV KSS KSS