Kolkata: In big relief for the Polish student who was served a ‘Leave India’ notice in West Bengal, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday set aside the order, terming it a "paranoid over-reaction". The notice was served by the Centre for his alleged participation in an anti-CAA rally here.
On March 5, the High Court had granted a stay order on the notice served upon Jadavpur University student Kamil Siedcynski by the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO) here.
Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya directed the central government not to give effect to the notice served on the Poland citizen. Siedczynski is enrolled for a Masters' degree in the Department of Comparative Literature at the university.
“From the materials before the court, it does not appear, however, that any valid ground for expulsion of the petitioner, despite the validity of his visa till August 30, 2020, has been made out in the confidential report,” said the judge.
Passing the order, the court observed that no justified grounds for expulsion of the petitioner from Indian soil have been made by the Union government.
Justice Bhattacharyya observed that the basic and fundamental rights of a foreigner, associated with life and personal liberty, is vested in all persons living in India, citizen or foreigner, not only by virtue of Article 21 of the Constitution but also go along with a healthy human existence, which is the birth-right of any human being, including the petitioner.
The court held that the order of expulsion is devoid of any reason, observing that the petitioner ought to have
been given a right of hearing prior to curtailing his valuable rights, accrued by dint of his visa issued and renewed subsequently by the central government itself.
In the present case, a 'hearing' was alleged to have been given to the petitioner after his expulsion order
was issued, which makes such 'hearing' merely a lip-service and an eye-wash, the court said, while noting that no reasons were attributed in the order of expulsion.
"The order of expulsion thus appears to be a paranoid over-reaction, contrary to the rights enshrined in Article 21
of the Indian Constitution," the court observed.
The student is currently working on the translation of 100 poems by Czesław Miłosz, the Nobel Prize-winning Polish writer, into Bengali in collaboration with Jadavpur University Press supported by the Book Institute under the government of Poland.
Siedcynski studied Bengali, Sanskrit and Hindi at the Warsaw University in Poland. After graduation, attracted by the work and ideas of Rabindranath Tagore, he joined Visva-Bharati as a student, completing two language courses (Sanskrit and Bengali) between 2016 and 2018.
Siedcynski joined Jadavpur University in 2018.
Comments
0 comment