According to Bar and Bench, on March 28, the Delhi High Court granted academic Ashok Swain relief and overturned the Center’s decision to revoke his Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card.
The decision was revoked, according to the ruling handed by Justice Sachin Datta’s bench. Nonetheless, the respondents were given the authority to send out a new show-cause notice.
Swedish citizen Ashok Swain had challenged the OCI card cancellation and went to the High Court to contest the ruling, calling it a non-speaking decision, according to ANI.
The disputed ruling, which was issued on July 30, 2023, was reported to have been issued after a coordinated bench had earlier removed Swain’s OCI card and overturned a similar instruction on July 10, 2023.
In his plea, Swain contended that he should not face punishment for voicing his thoughts about the practices of the current administration.
Swain’s appeal emphasized that while the Central Government asserted that he was banned for allegedly engaging in anti-Indian activities and disseminating damaging propaganda via his writings and speeches, the order lacked concrete examples, tweets, or texts to support the charge made by the Indian Embassy in Sweden and Latvia.
He emphasized in his argument that there was no proof of Swain’s alleged harmful actions on public forums in the order.
As for Ashok Swain, the Center had previously informed the court that his Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) registration had been revoked because it was “satisfied” that Swain had participated in “illegal activities inimical” to India’s sovereignty, integrity, and security.
On February 8, 2024, the Indian Embassy in Sweden and Latvia revoked Swain’s OCI Card in accordance with Citizenship Act Section 7D(e), according to LiveLaw.
