It may not be correct to assume that an Indian national granted asylum overseas ceases to be the country's citizen, the Delhi High Court has said while deciding a woman's plea for restoration of her passport which was denied by the Centre on the presumption that she had been granted asylum in France.
Justice Vibhu Bakhru said, "The assumption that a citizen who has been granted asylum overseas, ceases to be a citizen of this country may not be correct,.."
The court said that in the instant case it was not necessary to examine this issue as the woman had neither applied for nor has been granted asylum by France.
She had sought directions to the Centre to issue a valid passport to her as her travel document was impounded by the Indian embassy in France on the ground that since her husband had sought asylum in that country, his family along with him would lose their Indian citizenship.
"Since the premise on which the impugned communication has been issued is manifestly erroneous, the impugned communication is liable to be set aside. In view of the above, the petition is allowed and the communication dated August 4, 2016 denying passport facilities to the petitioner is set aside.
The woman, in her plea, had challenged the August 4, 2016 communication declining her request for restoration of passport facilities.
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The court, while setting aside the August 2016 communication, directed the Centre to "process the woman's application for renewal/issuance of passport as expeditiously as possible and, in any event, within a period of four weeks from today (May 2) as this court is informed that the petitioner (woman) has to appear before the French authorities on June 7, 2019 for retaining her residential status".
According to the woman's plea, her husband had applied for asylum with the authorities in France, which was subsequently withdrawn.
He had, thereafter, applied for citizenship of that country and was granted the same in 2016 after their Indian passports were impounded in March 2015, the petition filed through advocates Ejaz Maqbool, Raghavendra M Bajaj and Garima Bajaj, said.
She has been residing with her husband in France since 2009 on the basis of French Residency card issued to her for 10 years, her plea said and had added that all three of their children have been accepted as citizens of that country and French passports have been issued to them.
The petition had said that the French Residency Card issued to her was due to expire in June 2019.
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