Noted UK anthropologist and social scientist Filippo Osella was on the highest category on the black list and that is why he was deported, the Centre informed the Delhi High Court Wednesday. The High Court has asked the Centre to file an affidavit.
Justice Yashwant Varma on Wednesday directed the Centre to file an affidavit in the petition. The matter has been listed on February 24, 2023, for further hearing.
The counsel of Centre, on instruction, informed the court that Osella was in the highest category of the blacklist and that's why he was deported. Further details can't be disclosed.
The bench after the submission said to file an affidavit in the matter.
Osella had approached the Delhi High court challenging his deportation from the Thiruvananthapuram Airport on March 23. The High court on Monday sought a stand of the central government on the plea of Osella who is also a professor of Anthropology and South Asian studies at the University of Sussex in the UK.
The counsel for Central Government had sought time to take instructions.
Osella moved a petition making different Ministries, including the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, and FRRO Trivandrum respondents in the matter.
The petition has sought a direction to call for the records related to the action of deportation by the immigration authorities and to quash the same.
The petition has contended, "since the authorities not only denied entry without any reason at all but also did not provide any reasonable opportunity to the petitioner to present his side. The whole process was vitiated by duress and actuated by arbitrariness. This also falls fouls of Wednesbury's principles of reasonableness and fairness in administrative actions."
The plea further stated that the petitioner during his previous visits never faced any such issues at immigration. It is contended that the petitioner has never been involved in any illegal activities.
The petitioner has challenged the action of deporting him from the airport. He has termed the action as unconstitutional, and arbitrary. He has stated that he has made various representations, but no reason has been given to him for his deportation in March.
It is stated in the petition that reasons were disturbingly absent in this high-handed and arbitrary conduct of the immigration authorities at Thiruvananthapuram airport. By 4.30 AM, the professor was literally marched back and bundled into the same aircraft, in which he had arrived and was unjustly deported-much like a hardened criminal.
( With inputs from ANI )
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