Nithyakalyani Narayanan. V
The Bombay High Court criticised the way the Central Government handled the petition of a Russian woman challenging her exit permit, which was issued after she got divorced from her Indian husband. The 38-year-old petitioner alleged that she had remarried an Indian man and they have a six-month-old daughter along with a minor son from her previous marriage.
The mother had been granted an exit permit in January 2023 by the local police, instructed by the Home Affairs Ministry. The deadline to leave the country was March 2023. She approached the High Court for an extension of time period, which was granted.
The counsel for the mother argued that the impugned order complied with necessary statutory requirements. However, the judges noticed that she was not requesting the continuation of her Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status after her divorce.
Justice Gautam Patel and Justice Neela Gokhale grilled the viewpoint of the Centre, emphasising the complexity of the rules and the subsequent punishment by the Indian citizen and his newborn. The division bench raised objections to the viewpoint that all citizens should be judged suspicious. The court remarked that penalising Indian citizens for marrying people from different countries was unjustifiable.
The High Court highlighted the consequences of separating a nursing mother from her newborn due to nationality “Just be right, sensible, and have a humane approach to the woman and her child. Don’t let nationalities come in the way of this. We won’t allow separation even for a minute. If this is not a special circumstance for mother, then there is nothing (in your argument).”
The court extended its previous interim relief and demanded an additional affidavit from the Centre.