The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Delhi high court has set aside an order passed by the Indian Embassy in Sweden and Latvia revoking Sweden-based Professor Ashok Swain’s Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status.
According to Indian Express, Justice Subramonium Prasad said, “This is hardly an order; it does not give any reasons. It hardly gives any indication of the application of mind on the matter.”
The Indian Embassy in Sweden and Latvia had issued an order on February 8, 2022, cancelling the OCI status of Swain. The order noted that it was being done in “exercise of power under Section 7(D)(e) of Citizenship Act on the ground that the petitioner is indulging in activities which is prejudicial to the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, security of India, friendly relationship of India with any foreign country”.
Justice Prasad faulted the order, stating that “no reason” has been cited for the cancellation of Swain’s OCI status. “Other than repeating the section as a mantra no reason has been given in the judgment as to why the registration of the petitioner as an OCI cardholder has been revoked.”
The court ordered the respondents in the case – the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, and the Indian Embassy in Sweden and Latvia – to issue a “detailed order” within three weeks.
“Impugned order is set aside, respondents are directed to complete the exercise within three weeks from today. It is made clear that this court has not expressed any opinion on the merits of the case,” the high court noted.
Unsatisfied by the government’s submission that “agencies had got information, and on examination of the reports, this order was passed”, the court pressed for a “detailed order”.
According to Swain’s petition, he received a show cause notice on October 6, 2020 from the Indian Embassy stating that his OCI status was cancelled for his “inflammatory speeches and anti-India activities”. He also claimed that authorities concerned did not refer to any specific instances or materials to “substantiate such bald allegations or drastic measures”.
In his response to the show cause notice, filed in November 2020, he sought reasons or materials from authorities concerned to substantiate the allegations made against him, Swain’s petition said.
He then went on to say, in his plea, that on February 8, 2022, the Indian Embassy, without hearing him, “arbitrarily” passed an order cancelling his OCI Card. He described the order as “ex-facie illegal, arbitrary and non-est in law”.
He also called it a “non-speaking and unreasoned order, which has been passed without any application of Judicial Mind, to the extent that it deems to be a routine/mechanical exercise of power”.
Swain’s petition also claimed that he never indulged in any inflammatory speeches or anti-India activities, and as a scholar, his role in society was to “discuss and critique the policies of the government through his work”.
“Being an Academician, he analyses and criticises certain policies of the present government, mere criticism of the policies of the current ruling dispensation shall not tantamount to anti-India activities under Section 7D(e) of the Citizenship Act, 1955,” Swain’s plea stated.
As per the petition, Swain is an academician and the UNESCO Chair on International Water Cooperation since 2007. He is also currently serving as professor and head of department at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden. He was given an OCI Card on January 14, 2020.
He petitioned the court for his OCI status to be revoked, stating that it is extremely urgent for him to visit India to meet his 77-year-old mother, suffering from multiple ailments.