LI Network
Published on: 10 July 2023 at 15:45 IST
The Delhi High Court has invalidated the Central Government’s order to cancel the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card belonging to Professor Ashok Swain. Professor Swain, who is a peace and conflict research professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, challenged the order, arguing that it lacked proper justification.
Justice Subramonium Prasad, set aside the Central Government’s cancellation order regarding Ashok Swain’s OCI card. The High Court further directed the government to provide a detailed explanation for their actions against the petitioner within three weeks.
The petition was filed in December 2022, It was stated that the OCI card was canceled in February 2022 due to Professor Swain’s critical remarks about the current Indian government. However, the petitioner maintains that he has not made any inflammatory speeches.
The argument presented was that there is no specific incident or evidence to suggest that he has engaged in such activities.
Professor Swain claimed that he has never delivered inflammatory speeches or participated in anti-India activities. As an academic, his role involves discussing government policies through his work. Additionally, it was stated that being critical of certain government policies does not equate to anti-India activities under the Citizenship Act of 1955.