The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Union government to respond to a petition filed by academician Ashok Swain challenging an alleged blacklisting order that has prevented him from entering India.
Justice Sachin Datta issued notice to the Union Ministries of Home Affairs and External Affairs, the Embassy of India to Sweden and Latvia, and the Bureau of Immigration. They have been asked to file their replies within three weeks. The case will be heard next on December 18.
Swain, a professor and head of the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden, told the court that he is being denied entry on the basis of an undisclosed blacklisting order. According to the petition, neither the contents of the order nor the legal basis for it have been communicated to him, and the action has not been tested against the procedural safeguards under the Citizenship Act, the principles of natural justice, or constitutional protections.
The plea refers to a counter affidavit filed by the Centre in earlier proceedings, in which the government stated that Swain, a Swedish national and OCI cardholder, “had been blacklisted and barred from entering into 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.”
The high court had earlier twice set aside the cancellation of his Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card and allowed the authorities to issue a fresh show-cause notice. Swain now argues that despite that judicial scrutiny, he continues to be barred from entering India under the Foreigners Act, without being given reasons or an opportunity to be heard.
According to the petition, the authorities have not provided any specific grounds for the alleged blacklisting. This, Swain contends, violates due process under the Citizenship Act and Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
He has sought directions permitting him to enter India on his OCI card, production of records related to the purported blacklisting order, and quashing of any order restraining his entry. The plea states that “despite two rounds of judicial review, respondents persisted in passing orders and imposing blacklisting based solely on sweeping and bald allegations, the contents of which were never disclosed even to this Court,” adding that such opacity “epitomises arbitrariness.”
Swain also told the court that his elderly mother, who resides in India, is unwell and that he has been unable to visit her for several years.
His OCI card had most recently been cancelled by the Embassy of India to Sweden and Latvia on February 8, 2024.
