Lahore-born, India-raised: Legal row over PIO status for meat exporter Qureshi’s daughter

The court further said that “…the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) shall act expeditiously to process the application and make an endeavour to issue visa to the petitioner as per the applicable guidelines”.

According to government pleader in the case, Rajesh Gogna, that the court has allowed Pernia to apply for visa means that her PIO card’s validity is in doubt as PIO card holders do not need a visa.

“That the court has asked Pernia to apply for a visa means there was a requirement for such an application. A PIO/OCI cardholder does not need a visa. Now, when she applies for a visa, the government will take a call on whether to grant the same. That is a sovereign function of the government. But her status has now changed from a PIO to a non-citizen visa seeker,” Gogna told The Indian Express.

Pernia’s lawyer Yoginder Handoo, however, asserted that the court had granted a technical relief to his client. “The court has allowed for a visa application, but the 2019 stay on cancellation of her PIO card has not been vacated,” Handoo said.

According to Pernia’s petition, she was born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1983 to a Pakistani mother. In 1995, mother and daughter migrated to India and became Indian citizens. In 2007, Pernia became a US citizen after renouncing Indian citizenship. In 2008, she was issued a PIO card by the Consulate General in New York which remained valid till 2023.

Pernia used the PIO card to make multiple visits to India, extended stays and has even worked in Mumbai as a fashion designer, costume designer for movies and taken up acting assignments in the film industry.

In 2015, the government changed the PIO system to Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) and it was deemed that all PIO card holders would automatically become OCIs and so PIO card holders were asked to get OCI cards.

In 2017, Pernia applied for an OCI card. However, in February 2018, she was to surrender her PIO card. Pernia did not do so. In February, 2019, the FRRO informed her that she could not be issued an OCI card as her mother was a Pakistani and she was herself born in Pakistan. The FRRO further asked her to surrender her PIO card and apply for a visa instead.

Following this, Pernia approached the Delhi High Court, which stayed the cancellation of her PIO card.

The court had at the time held that the principal controversy in the case related to the interpretation of Section 7A of the Citizenship Act 1955, which said that “no person, who is or had been a citizen of Pakistan, Bangladesh or such other country as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify, shall be eligible for registration as an overseas citizen of India cardholders”.

The court at the time said: “The interpretation of Section 7A of the Citizenship Act requires consideration, however, this Court is prima facie of the view that in the meanwhile, the respondents be restrained from revoking the petitioner’s PIO/OCI Cardholder till the next date of hearing, as it is not disputed that the petitioner was a citizen of India for 12 years prior to being provided the PIO card.”

Pernia’s father Moin Akhtar Qureshi has been at the centre of multiple high-profile investigations by the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and the Income Tax Department, facing allegations ranging from tax evasion and hawala transactions to money laundering and corruption. Arrested in 2017 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Qureshi was accused of acting as a middleman who allegedly used his proximity to senior officials—including former CBI chiefs—to influence ongoing probes in exchange for money.