Notices to Centre, Delhi Govt on lawyer's plea

Notices to Centre, Delhi Govt on lawyer's plea
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, APRIL 20: The Delhi High Court has issued notices to the Centre and the city government on a petition filed by a lawyer alleging that he was "illegally" prevented by immigration officials at Indira Gandhi International Airport from leaving the country to attend the 56th session of the United Nations Conference on Human Rights (UNCHR) at Geneva despite having valid visa and passport.

The lawyer, R M Tufail, was a member of a Hurriyat delegation, according to its spokesman Abdul Majid Bandey.

Taking serious note of the incident, a division bench comprising Justice Usha Mehra and Justice S N Kapoor on Wednesday issued the notices while directing the Ministry of Home Affairs to produce the officials responsible for preventing the lawyer and official records in this regard on April 24, the next date of hearing.

The Petitioner R M Tufail in his petition filed through counsel M N Siddiqui alleged that the Immigration officials at the IGI airport had prevented him and two others at the airport on April 9 saying they had "LOC" status but did not explain its meaning.

An official of the Immigration Department said "LOC is Look Out Circular and is issued when a person is wanted by any Law Enforcement agency".

However, Home Ministry officials had on April 10 clarified that Tufail and the two others accompanied by Abdul Majid Bandey, spokesman of Hurriyat conference in Delhi, were prevented from travelling as they would have indulged in anti-India campaign at the international conference.

"Let the officer be present and the record in which there is mention of the LOC be produced before us", the judges said adding, "It seems the officers have taken them for granted".

Tufail and the two others Mohammed Amin Bhat and Syed Gulam Nabi Fai were to attend a session of the Commission of the Human Rights at the UN office in Geneva from April 20 to 28 at the invitation of the International Islamic Federation of Students' organisations.