Suman Vijay Gupta vs Union Of India And 2 Ohther
2023 Latest Caselaw 2337 Bom

                                                                P1-IAL-4194-2023-OSWP-5010-2022.DOC




                      Shephali



                           IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
                                  ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION
                                 INTERIM APPLICATION (L) NO. 4194 OF 2023
                                                           IN
                                        WRIT PETITION NO. 5010 OF 2022


                      Suman Vijay Gupta                                               ...Applicant
                           In the matter between
                      Suman Vijay Gupta                                              ...Petitioner
                           Versus
                      Union of India & Ors                                        ...Respondents


                      Mr Tushad Cooper, Senior Advocate, with Shaista Pathan &
                           Privanshi Bathia, i/b YZA Legal, for the Petitioner.
SHEPHALI              Mr Umesh Shetty, Senior Advocate, with Ravindra Bhosale, i/b
SANJAY
MORMARE                    Vivek S Sawantm, for Respondent No. 3-SBI.
Digitally signed by
SHEPHALI
SANJAY
MORMARE
Date: 2023.03.10
17:55:34 +0530
                                                CORAM        G.S. Patel &
                                                             Neela Gokhale, JJ.

                                                DATED:       10th March 2023
                      PC:-

1. Mentioned. Not on board. Taken on board for urgent reliefs.

2. Mr Cooper says that the Petitioner proposes to travel overseas for four weeks from 13th March 2023 to 10th April 2023 to Dubai and United Arab Emirates. She proposes to visit her son there. The opposition from the State Bank of India which initiated the Look

10th March 2023 P1-IAL-4194-2023-OSWP-5010-2022.DOC

Out Circulars or LOCs under the Office Memoranda by the Bureau of Immigration is that the Petitioner has surrendered her Indian citizenship and obtained citizenship and a passport of the Dominican Republic. Our attention is drawn to an earlier order of 3rd July 2020 passed in a previous Writ Petition that the Petitioner had filed. The Bench has asked her to keep her son present in India. That Petition was withdrawn.

3. The present Petition contains a substantive challenge to the Office Memoranda as amended and as made applicable to the nationalised banks. A bench of one of us GS Patel, J with Madhav J Jamdar, J heard the substantive challenge and judgment is reserved. In the meantime we have allowed several Interim Applications subject to certain conditions.

4. One of the conditions that we insist on is an undertaking to return to the country which Mr Cooper states on instructions he is willing to give and has been prepared in the form of an Affidavit. He tenders this. It is to be filed in the Registry.

5. We see no reason to prohibit the travel simply on the ground that the Petitioner is a foreign national. Indeed that seems to us to raise more questions than it answers because for an Indian citizen action could be taken under the Passports Act, but this is clearly not possible in the case of a person holding a foreign passport. Therefore it will have to be demonstrated that an action preventing a foreign citizen from leaving a country is one that can be sustained and further, that even a limited permission for a short specified

10th March 2023 P1-IAL-4194-2023-OSWP-5010-2022.DOC

duration of time is liable to be refused. We are unable to see while this should be so.

6. The Interim Application is made absolute in terms of prayer clause (a) subject to the usual conditions, viz.:-

(i) the Petitioner is to file an undertaking to return to this country at the end of this period, if not already done;

(ii) the Petitioner is to file a detailed itinerary with her contact details and addresses overseas, if not already done;

(iii) The Petitioner must file an undertaking (if not already done) not to apply for renewal or extension of this order until he returns to this country.

7. Subject to these conditions, the LOCs in question against the Petitioner are stayed until 11th April 2023.

8. The immigration authorities at all ports of departure including all airports will permit the Petitioner passage and permit the Petitioner to take his flights out of the country irrespective of whether the State Bank of India have notified them or not and irrespective of whether this suspension is noted in the immigration authorities' systems or not.

10th March 2023 P1-IAL-4194-2023-OSWP-5010-2022.DOC

9. The immigration authorities will not ask for a certified copy of this order but will act on presentation of an authenticated or digitally signed copy of this order.

10. The Interim Application is disposed of in these terms . No Costs.

11. All Affidavits are to be filed in the Registry.

(Neela Gokhale, J)                                      (G. S. Patel, J)





                             10th March 2023