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It was an early Eid present to Pakistani national Nuzhat Jahan,who has been staying at the Nirmal Chhaya home for women for the past three months. The Delhi High Court on Wednesday allowed her to go home to her family in Old Delhi and directed the government to expedite the processing of her application for regularisation of her stay in the country.
We direct the release of the petitioner from the Beggars Home,Nirmal Chhaya Parisar,Delhi,forthwith… so that the petitioner is able to celebrate such a pious and important festival (Eid) with her family members, the court of Justices Kailash Gambhir and Indermeet Kaur said.
Nuzhat,who has been staying in India since her marriage to Delhi-based Mohammad Gulfam in 1983,was convicted by a city court in May for living in India without valid documents in violation of the Foreigners Act.
The court had sentenced her to one-week imprisonment and ordered that she be deported to Pakistan.
Nuzhats Pakistani passport had expired in 1993,and her long-term visa for stay in India has not been renewed since 1994.
The 45-year-old,who has three children and two grandchildren,was sent to live in the Nirmal Chhaya home after completion of her prison sentence as the authorities could not release her without documentation.
She had approached the Delhi High Court through Peoples Union for Civil Liberties advocate N D Pancholi,who offered to take up her case pro bono after reading about her plight in a news report carried by The Indian Express after her conviction in May.
In her plea before the High Court,she had requested that she be allowed to stay with her family in Delhi and that her application for citizenship be considered expeditiously.
On Wednesday,Central government counsel Jatan Singh informed the court that her citizenship application could not be processed since her stay in India since 1994 had not been regularised.
The High Court then directed Nuzhat to approach the DCP (Special Branch) within one week with her application to regularise her stay and for extension of her long-term visa.
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