‘Unable to visit ailing mother’: After OCI row, Professor Ashok Swain now challenges blacklisting order in Delhi HC

Justice Sachin Datta issued notice, seeking a response from the Centre through its ministries of Home Affairs and External Affairs. The court has now posted the matter for consideration next on December 18.

The Centre, in November 2023, had informed the HC that Swain had been “blacklisted and barred from entering into the 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”.

Swain, through his advocate Aadil Singh Boparai, submitted in his plea that such a purported undisclosed blacklisting order, issued without any prior show cause notice, opportunity of hearing, and a speaking order “smacks of arbitrariness” as it disables (Swain) from visiting his aged and ailing mother, who is aged about 80 years, suffering from multiple ailments, “causing irreparable harm to his right to family life and personal liberty”.

He also submitted that “such blanket exclusion from entering the country, especially for persons with deep-rooted ties and family reasons, is manifestly excessive”.

Swain was granted Swedish citizenship in 2006 and granted registration as OCI in January 2020. On February 8, 2022, Swain’s OCI card was cancelled.

OCI cancellation effectively bars a person of Indian origin with foreign nationality from entering the country.

The professor challenged a July 30, 2023, order of the Indian Embassy to Sweden and Latvia which cancelled his OCI registration. The Centre had cancelled the registration on the grounds that Swain had been found indulging in “illegal activities inimical” to the interests of the sovereignty, integrity, and security of India.

On July 10, 2023, the Delhi HC had set aside the Centre’s order cancelling Swain’s OCI on the grounds of it being unreasoned.

Nearly three weeks later, the Centre cancelled the OCI again, accusing Swain of “defaming India on social media platforms by carrying out detrimental propaganda through his writings and speeches in various public forums”.

In January this year, Swain had urged the court’s intervention to be granted a temporary visa to be allowed to meet his ailing mother.

In March, the Delhi HC again set aside the second OCI cancellation order, noting that the authorities had failed to adhere to necessary statutory procedural requirements.

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