New Delhi
A 62-year man Mohammad Qamar, who has no proof of being born as an Indian and has been disowned by Pakistan as its citizen even though he has an expired green passport, has made the Supreme Court ask the government how long it wants to keep him under detention.
This tragic story of Mohammad Qamar alias Mohammad Kamil, the father of five grown-up children, who were arrested from Meerut in August 2011 for overstaying in India has spent a decade of his life paying for his mistake., came up before the apex court on Monday again.
Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj told the two-member Bench comprising Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant, that how could a Pakistani citizen claim equal rights as an Indian citizen. His reference was to petitioners’ children seeking his release so that their father could apply for Indian Citizenship.
At this, the bench said: "The question is how long you can keep him."
For a second time, the Court gave two weeks to the government to come up with a solution to this man’s plight.
According to petitioners – three sons and two daughters of Mohammad Qamar – he was born in Meerut in 1958. “He (Qamar) had gone with his mother from India to Pakistan as a child of around 7-8 years in 1967-1968 on a visa to meet his relatives there. However, his mother died there, and he remained in Pakistan in the care of his relatives,” the plea of habeas corpus filed in the top court said.
It said that Qamar, on attaining adulthood, came back to India on a Pakistani passport in around 1989-1990 and got married to Shehnaaj Begum of Meerut and settled down there. He had no idea that he needs to get a visa extension.
He was arrested by Police and the Court declared him a citizen of Pakistan and guilty of illegally staying in India. He completed his sentence of three years and six months on February 6, 2015, and thereafter Qamar was sent to the Detention Centre at Lampur in Narela, New Delhi, for deportation to Pakistan. However, the Pakistan government did not accept his deportation and he continues to languish at the centre. seven years have passed since he was lodged there.
The petitioners accepted that their father has no documentary proof to show that he had gone with his mother to Pakistan in around 1967-68 and his mother died there.
“Nevertheless, the undisputed fact is that he came to India around 1989-90 on a Pakistani passport and did not extend his visa due to lack of education and, subsequently, got married here,” it said.
Senior advocate Sanjay Parikh, submitted before the court its earlier order for the release of foreigners lodged in detention centers was about Bangladeshi nationals.
However, he raised a question: "How can such a distinction be made? We are only seeking enforcement of this court's order?"
Qamar's children have approached the Supreme Court with a plea that their father may be released so that he could apply for Indian citizenship as his five children are Indian citizens.
On February 28, the apex court sought Centre's response whether Qamar can be released for a brief period, to apply for Indian citizenship.
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