Delhi High Court revokes relief for Wire founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan over ‘suppression of material facts’
The Delhi High Court noted the alleged suppression of material facts related to bail conditions imposed by the Allahabad High Court.
Siddarth Varadarajan, an American citizen with roots in India and living continuously here since 1995, was issued a PIO card in October 2002. (File Photo) IN A setback for journalist and one of the founding editors of The Wire, Siddharth Varadarajan, the Delhi High Court on Thursday recalled its earlier order granting him relief and took serious note of “suppression of material facts” in his plea.
Justice Purushaindra Kaurav has now sought an explanation for his conduct on an affidavit and issued notice.
On May 12, the Delhi HC had set aside an April communication by the Ministry of Home Affairs to Varadarajan, where the MHA had denied his request for converting his Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card to Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card. The court’s decision came while deprecating the rejection of the request by the authorities without assigning any reason. This order now stands recalled.
On Thursday, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, appearing for the Centre, informed the court that one of the pre-arrest bail conditions imposed by the Allahabad High Court in a case involving alleged defamation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during Covid-19 was that Varadarajan shall not leave India during the pendency of trial without permission from the trial court concerned. It had also stipulated that Varadarajan shall surrender his passport to the court.
The bail conditions were, however, not disclosed in Vardarajan’s petition before the Delhi HC.
Addressing senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, appearing for Varadarajan, Justice Kaurav orally remarked, “…You’ve to take instruction, otherwise this is very serious.”
Even as Ramakrishnan explained before the court that she was aware of the aspect of the bail condition, but it had “slipped her mind” in including it in the petition, and apologised for her slip, Justice Kaurav orally said, “These conditions have not been pointed out to the court. Please file an affidavit, we will have to dismiss your petition only on this ground because of suppression of facts… We accept your apology and will not take action against the petitioner…”
“Please file a proper affidavit because this has very serious consequences. This may lead to a very unpleasant situation…Petitioner will have to explain by way of affidavit, depending on the same, the court will decide whether we have to take some action against the petitioner or we have to leave it at that… We always believe the petitioner is approaching the court with full disclosure. Apologise by way of affidavit,” the court orally remarked.
Recording a “prima facie opinion that the petitioner is guilty of suppressing material facts before court”, the court issued notice with a direction to “explain his conduct” on affidavit, within seven working days. The court will hear the matter next on May 25.
“The SC…has held that as a general rule, suppression of material facts by litigants disqualifies such litigants from obtaining any relief. This rule has been evolved out of the need of the courts to deter a litigant from abusing the processes of court by deceiving it,” the High Court recorded.
In May 2020, Vardarajan was granted pre-arrest bail by the Allahabad HC in relation to an FIR alleging that a tweet-based on a report by The Wire — ‘As COVID-19 Cases Spike in Nizamuddin, Nehru Stadium in Delhi to Become Quarantine Centre’ — defamed the UP CM.
Varadarajan, an American citizen with his roots in India and living here since 1995, was issued a PIO card in October 2002. In 2015, following a notification under the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955, all existing PIO cardholders stood deemed to be OCI cardholders by operation of law. Varadarajan had applied for physical conversion of his PIO Card into OCI documentation before the Foreigners Regional Registration Office in New Delhi in January 2022. The MHA, after keeping the application pending for more than four years, refused Varadarajan’s application in a one-line email on April 2 without ascribing any reasons for the denial.
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