A PIL was today moved in the Delhi High Court challenging the constitutional validity of 'blacklists' maintained by the Centre since 1984 which contain names of some NRIs and persons of Indian origin who have been denied entry into the country on national security grounds.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath after hearing arguments of the government and the petitioner, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, listed the matter for orders on January 8.
The committee has contended that most of the persons named in the lists are Sikhs and thus the government's action was confined to a particular community.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain denied the allegation and contended that such petitions would give rise to "communal overtones".
The ASG and central government standing counsel Anil Soni questioned how the committee can champion the cause of those people who due to their antecedents may not be conducive to the security of the country.
The bench was also provided the process followed by the government while reviewing these lists to add and delete names from it.
The committee in its plea has alleged that the blacklists are "unconstitutional, illegal and arbitrary", as there was no legal sanctity attached to them and there is no law or policy for providing any legal system for preparing such lists.
Persons affected are not even given an opportunity to be heard, the petition contended and sought that these people be allowed to enter the country and in case there is any litigation/complaint against them they should be subjected to the law.
The committee sought directions to the government to frame guidelines for providing a legal mechanism to prepare, maintain and periodically review the blacklists in consonance with the Constitution and the Citizenship Act "so as to ensure that appropriate and effective legal remedy and mechanism is made available in India to all the affected persons and their relatives".
It has also sought quashing of all the blacklists prepared by the government and a direction to the Centre to produce details of the materials and policies based on which the lists were prepared.
