Delhi High Court Reserves Verdict On Ashok Swain's Plea Against Cancellation Of OCI Card

The Delhi High Court has recently reserved judgment on the plea moved by academic and writer Ashok Swain challenging an order issued by the Central government cancelling his OCI card.

Justice Sachin Datta reserved verdict in the plea which contends that Swain cannot be witch-hunted for his views on current government or its policies.

The impugned order was passed on July 30, 2023, after a coordinate bench on July 10, 2023, had quashed an earlier similar order cancelling Swain's OCI card.

While doing so, the Court had asked the Central Government to pass a detailed order giving reasons for exercising its powers under Section 7D(e) of the Citizenship Act, 1955.

In his subsequent petition, Swain had said that despite “specific and unequivocal directions” of the court to pass a detailed order, the Embassy of India to Sweden & Latvia passed the the fresh order in a “callous manner” by merely para-phrasing the provisions of law.

“The Petitioner has an ailing mother aged about 78 years who is suffering from various medical ailments including Diabetes, High Blood Pressure and other age-related ailments. The Petitioner is the only son, and has not been to India in the past 3 years. Thus, there is an extreme urgency for him to visit India and attend to his ailing mother,” the plea filed by advocate Aadil Singh Boparai said. 

Swain had also said that he is a well-known academic and researcher, and that being an Academician, he analyses and criticises certain policies of the present government.

“He cannot be made to suffer for his views on the policies of the government. As a scholar it his role in the society to discuss and critique the policies of Government through his work. The Petitioner cannot be witch-hunted for his views on the political dispensation of the current government or their policies. Criticism of certain policies of the government would not amount to being an inflammatory speech or an Anti-India activity,” the plea added.

The Embassy of India to Sweden and Latvia on February 8 last year year cancelled Swain's OCI Card under Section 7D(e) of the Citizenship Act.

Case Title: Ashow Swain v. Union of India & Ors