Yesterday, the Bombay High Court has expressed the displeasure with the Union government directing Russian woman to leave the country after she divorced her Indian husband.

A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale on Monday said a woman, who is still nursing her infant, should not be separated because of her nationality.

Case Brief -

In the said matter, the Court was hearing a petition filed by a Russian woman who was married to an Indian citizen and had an X1 visa with an Overseas Citizens India (OCI) status.

She had a son from her previous marriage but the couple separated. After divorce, the woman married another Indian citizen with whom she shares a daughter who is 6 months old.

The woman surrendered her OCI card and applied for a X visa. In response, she was served an exit notice from the Ministry of Home Affairs through local police asking her to leave the country by March 24, 2023, as she lost her OCI status after her divorce from her previous husband.

Pending hearing of her plea, the woman had sought direction to the police to extend the time period of the exit permit.

On Monday, advocate Rui Rodrigues appearing for the Centre, told the court that the impugned order was as per statutory requirements and there were no sufficient grounds to show the special circumstances by which the woman can apply for citizenship.

The bench, however, noted that she was not asking for continuation of her OCI status after the divorce and that she has remarried an Indian man.

“Why would any government decide to treat its own citizens and penalise them because they have married someone with foreign origin/foreigner? It is as if the government is saying you dare not marry a foreigner… We will not blind ourselves from the fact that we have a mother with a six-month-old child before us. We are not letting you sunder this family," the court said.

“You are saying that her OCI was in her first marriage.. and therefore it cannot continue. Your rules are difficult for us to understand. You are punishing an Indian citizen (the man) and his daughter also. We are trying to say something in as much interest of the petitioner and the respondent to strike a balance. We find this action disproportionate. Your idea of governance that all citizens are suspect is not palatable to us,” Justice Patel said.