Savvy Thakur
Published on: 07 December 2022 at 21:00 IST
The Delhi High Court refused to consider a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought police verification of the passports of all Africans and Bangladeshi people living in Delhi and alleging them to be drug peddler.
The bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad, while rejecting the plea, stated that broad-brushing people from a country or continent as drug peddlers can be racist.
“You have not conducted any research; what is the basis for this? These remarks may be considered racist. They are also individuals. Their passports are current. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing in here,” the Court noted.
The petition was therefore withdrawn.
Advocate Sushil Kumar Jain made the claim in the plea that drug smuggling is mostly carried out by African nationals, which ultimately affects youth and has a negative impact on their future.
“Many foreigners obtain student and medical visas or engage in illegal activities, such as human trafficking, drug smuggling, and cyber fraud. The plea stated that the prevalence of prostitution had contributed to the spread of AIDS and numerous other sexually transmitted diseases in Delhi.”
Additionally, the plea argued that these foreign nationals do not possess the necessary visas or passports to legally reside in India.
According to the plea, “that they all are living as tenants in Delhi and their landlords have been accommodating them without their proper verification for deriving monetary benefits through them in easy ways…”
“….this habits of landlord (providing illegal shelters to foreigners without verification) can provide easy means and ways for terrorists to act in our country and they can easily get successful in their nefarious plan/design in Delhi and across our country.”
Case Title: Sushil Kr Jain v. UOI