India News | HC Imposes Rs 25k Costs While Dismissing PIL on Release of Foreigners in Custody for Overstaying
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Delhi High Court Thursday dismissed with costs of Rs 25,000 a PIL seeking to deport all foreign nationals who are in custody for overstaying in India beyond the period of expiration of their visas.
New Delhi, Oct 28 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Thursday dismissed with costs of Rs 25,000 a PIL seeking to deport all foreign nationals who are in custody for overstaying in India beyond the period of expiration of their visas.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh said that the "so called public interest litigation" was preferred for some particular motive and directed the petitioner to deposit the costs amount with the Delhi State Legal Services Authority within 4 weeks.
"If any foreign national is committing any offence under IPC or any other Indian law, there is bound to be an FIR or criminal proceedings against such foreign nationals as per the Indian laws... As and when a person who is in jail is coming to the court, looking at the facts of their case, relief can be granted. In view of this, we see no reason to entertain this petition,” the bench said.
The court said it ought to be kept in mind that whenever any offence is registered against any person, the relief cannot be granted without appreciating the facts of the case.
This writ petition is preferred as a PIL and therefore reliefs as prayed for cannot be granted by this court for those foreign nationals against whom offences are registered and who are in lawful custody of the court, it said.
The court dismissed the petition which sought direction to the Centre to deport to their countries all such foreign nationals who have been detained and are in custody for the sole reason of overstaying within the territory of India beyond the period of expiration of their visas and who have neither committed any other offence here nor are a threat to the national security.
The plea said detention of an individual for correctional purpose shall be served and fulfilled for those who are of Indian origin and no purpose is served for those who are foreign nationals.
It only further burdens the criminal justice and rehabilitation system of India and thus, it would only be in the interest of justice if the authorities are directed to deport all such foreign nationals to their countries, the plea said.
The petitioner association particularly mentioned the case of two foreign nationals who have been detained for overstaying in India and said there are many more similarly placed foreigners.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)