Team Herald
PANJIM: A bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan on Thursday disposed of the special leave petition (SLP) filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), New Delhi challenging the High Court order on the OCI application filed by Adv Aires Rodrigues with liberty to the MHA to file a fresh petition after its review petition is heard by the High Court.
On July 25 last year, the High Court had directed the MHA to consider and decide within 30 days the application filed by Adv Rodrigues for an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card.
The High Court has already issued notices to MHA officials on a contempt of court petition filed by Adv Rodrigues over the failure by MHA to comply with the High Court order and the next hearing is scheduled on 8th January.
On May 15, 2023, Adv Rodrigues obtained his Portuguese passport in Lisbon and on his return to Goa in the first week of June immediately surrendered his Indian Passport at the Goa Passport Office as was required by law.
After surrendering his Indian passport and obtaining a Surrender Certificate and all the other required documents, he applied for his OCI card only to be told by the FRRO at Mumbai that the new rule required six months’ residence in Goa before filing an OCI application.
After completing the requisite six months’ residence, Adv Rodrigues once again on January 25 last year applied for an OCI card and paid the requisite processing fee of Rs 15,000. But on June 6, he received a one-line email from the FRRO, Mumbai that his OCI application had been cancelled under Rule 32(2) of Citizenship Rules, 2009.