Foreign Tablighi Jamaat members free to leave India after apology, SC told

1 min read
tableeghi
File Photo

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that foreign nationals, against whom legal proceedings are pending in connection with the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi, are free to leave the country after tendering an apology.

The submission was made by the Centre during the hearing of a plea by 34 foreign nationals seeking deportation to their home countries.

A bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari noted that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, on instructions, submitted that the look-out notices issued against the petitioners stand withdrawn.

“In other words, the concerned petitioner(s) will be free to leave India, subject to any other pending proceedings including order passed by the court requiring his/her presence in the stated proceedings,” it noted.

Mehta contended before the bench that if the petitioners concerned tender apology, as envisaged by the Madras High Court in the case concerned, they can be permitted to leave India despite the pendency of the case but subject to such orders that may be passed by the trial court concerned.

He also informed the bench that so far only 10 petitioners have decided to contest the cases pending against them and are not willing to exercise the option of plea bargaining.

At this, the top court said that the criminal cases concerning these 10 petitioners pending in different trial courts in Delhi be brought before the same court hearing criminal case arising out of FIR number 63 of 2020, so that all the cases can be disposed of expeditiously.

“Accordingly, we direct transfer of stated cases to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, South-East Delhi, Saket Court Complex, as suggested and direct the said court to dispose of all the cases expeditiously, preferably within eight weeks from today,” said the top court.

The bench has scheduled the matter for further hearing after eight weeks.

More than 30 petitioners, who moved the top court, submitted that they had to forfeit their passports to the administration after the registration of the FIRs, which led to deprivation of personal liberty, without following procedure established under law.

Initially, the Ministry of Home Affairs had blacklisted 960 foreign nationals who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event. Later, the Centre said 2,765 foreigners have been blacklisted.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Discover more from The Kashmir Monitor

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Don't Miss

images 5

Covid resurgence: Doctors advise people to wear masks

SRINAGAR: Amid Covid resurgence, doctors have advised people to wear masks in
vaccine new2

Covid vaccine drive for 12-14 year age group begins, over 6 lakh to be inoculated in J&K

India has expanded its COVID-19 vaccination drive with the inclusion of children