Bombay HC asks state to respond in cases of foreigners in prison for violating travel norms

The court said it will hear and decide the pleas on the next date and posted further hearing on July 3. (File)

OBSERVING THAT during the Covid-19 outbreak, foreign nationals are being kept in prisons due to breach of conditions in travel documents, such as visa violation, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court said such matters can be immediately decided on merit. The court directed the state government to respond within a week and clarify its intention to prosecute with such cases in view of the infection spreading in prisons.

A division bench of Justice T V Nalawade and Justice Shrikant D Kulkarni on Friday heard three criminal writ pleas filed by foreign nationals, Konan Kodio Ganstone, Asalebin Mohammad Noor, and Hammad Abdulkadar Banota, seeking to quash and set aside FIRs filed against them under the Foreigner’s Act, 1946, for violating travel conditions and visa norms along with other penal provisions.

The bench observed, “This court already expressed that the government needs to take steps and decide as to whether it wants to proceed with the matter. In a pandemic situation, foreign nationals are being kept in prison due to breach of conditions in travel documents.”

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It added, “These matters can be decided on merit immediately, but as hundreds of such cases are filed, the court wants to ascertain the intention of the state in these matters.”

Maintaining that if the state fails to make a statement regarding its decision on whether to proceed with cases against foreign nationals booked for flouting visa norms, the court said it will hear and decide the pleas on the next date and posted further hearing on July 3.