Caitu knocks doors of Delhi High Court

Plea likely to be come up for hearing on Friday
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Asserting that the order passed by the Home Ministry is politically motivated, beleaguered Benaulim MLA Caitu Silva has knocked the doors of the Delhi High Court with a plea to quash and set aside the Union Home Ministry’s ruling dated November 20 that he has ceased to be an Indian citizen.
The writ petition is likely to be come up for hearing before admission in the High Court on Friday.
In his petition, the Benaulim MLA contended that the Home Ministry had failed to consider the vital fact that he had never visited Portugal for the purpose of the alleged acquisition of Portuguese nationality and neither had it considered the firm averments on oath by the petitioner that he had never applied for citizenship from the Portuguese authorities, adding that the question of voluntarily acquiring the citizenship of Portugal does not arise.
“It is also settled that in law all public action must be taken in good faith. An action without good faith is malafide. The order passed by the Home Ministry reeks of malafide intention as it has been passed merely to appease a political opponent and is evidently politically motivated”, Caitu stated.
He further stated that very influential persons from the Congress exerted immense pressure on the Prescribed Authority to pass the order since he is supporting the BJP government in Goa. In support of his claim, the MLA has attached a letter dated August 26, 2013, written by a sitting member of the Rajya Sabha to the Home Ministry.
The Benaulim MLA submitted that the Prescribed Authority has violated the principles of natural justice in denying him a proper personal hearing in the matter since the hearing was done in his absence.
He contended that the Prescribed Authority has not cross verified with the Portuguese authority along with identity and finger print proofs in order to confirm the alleged registration of birth with the Central Registry of Portugal in Lisbon. He further said the Prescribed Authority had no evidence before it to conclusively establish the requirement in law that he had voluntarily acquired the citizenship of another country.
Caitu’s PA Elvis Gomes told Herald that the Benaulim MLA has placed full faith in the judiciary for justice. “We have gone before the court with clean hands. We have served copies of the petition on the petitioner before the Home Ministry John Fernandes and the Goa government. The Benaulim MLA has submitted before the court that he had never applied for Portuguese citizenship”, Gomes added.