MUMBAI, Aug 6:
Maintaining that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is part of India, the Maharashtra Government told the Bombay High Court today that it wants to withdraw cases under Passport Act and Foreign Citizens Act against a man seeking to be deported to the disputed region.
This submission was made by the State Government in the case of PoK native Siraj Khan, who claimed to have accidentally entered Indian territory as a 9-year-old.Khan has approached the High Court seeking direction to the Government to deport him to PoK after he was arrested for violating the law. According to Khan, he had approached the state CID to seek its help in going back but the police registered a case against him for entering the country without a passport.
The State Government contended that PoK is part of India, as per the Indian Constitution, and thus Siraj Khan is a natural citizen and the case against him under Passport Act and Foreign Citizens Act should not have been registered and will now be withdrawn.
The court has asked the Union Government to inform next week if it is in agreement with state’s stand on PoK.An the last hearing, the High Court had rapped the State Government for allowing a man without a passport to stay in India for so long and directed the Government to clear its stand on the matter.Advocate General Darius Khambatta today argued before the High Court that as per the Indian Constitution PoK is part of India. “Hence Siraj is an Indian,” he said.
Reacting to the Government’s conflicting stand on Khan’s citizenship, a division bench of justices A M Khanwilkar and A R Joshi said, “First you register case against him and then you say he is considered as Indian citizen.”
However, in 1998, when he tried to return to PoK, he was caught by a railway ticket examiner in Ahmedabad who handed him over to police. Khan then spent a year at a juvenile home in Gujarat from where he was released in 1999.Thereafter, he came back to Mumbai and got a job with a catering company. Once again he attempted to go to PoK through Wagah border but the authorities denied him entry and threatened to put him behind bars, Khan said in the petition.Khan returned to Mumbai where he met Sajida and they got married. The couple has three children and stay in Wadala. (PTI)
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