Delhi HC Seeks Central Govt. Response On Plea By Professor Ashok Swain Challenging OCI Card Revocation

The Delhi High Court on Monday issued a notice to the Central government on a plea by Professor Ashok Swain plea challenging the decision of Centre to cancel his Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card.

Justice Subramonium Prasad directed the Indian government for submiting its response within 4 weeks and scheduled the case for hearing in November.

Professor Swain is an academic and writer of India origin. Currently, he is a professor of peace and conflict research at Uppsala University, Sweden.

This is the 2nd time where Swain approached the High Court contesting the revocation of his OCI card.

Earlier, on February 8, 2022, his overseas citizenship was cancelled. However, on July 10 this year, the High Court quashed the government order cancelling Swain’s OCI card on finding that it was passed without any reason.

The Court, at the time, asked the Central government to pass a fresh reasoned order in the matter.

Now Swain has challenged the government’s July 30, 2023 order cancelling his overseas citizenship again.

Therefore, he argued that the government order doesn’t refer to any particular incident, tweet, writing or reason to back up the allegation that Swain was blacklisted for anti-India activities or for allegedly spreading detrimental propaganda through his writings & speeches.

Professor Swain has further contended that he is an academician and he cannot be made to suffer or witch-hunted for his views on the policies of the government or the political dispensation.
Additionally, he has an ailing mother, aged about 78 years, living in India whom he has not been able to visit for the past 3 years.

His plea added, “The Petitioner is the only son, and has not been to India in the past 3 years. Thus, there is an extreme urgency for him to visit India and attend to his ailing mother.”