Why passports of overstaying foreigners not seized, HC asks State

The High Court on Thursday questioned the State Public Prosecutor (SPP) why the State government was not seizing  passports of overstaying foreigners and those facing criminal charges.

Justice A V Chandrashekhara said the passport of any foreign national is a basic document and questioned the SPP why this document has not been seized.  The bench made these observations when the counsel representing foreign nationals were able to produce passports during hearing.

SPP P M Nawaz informed the court that according to rules, a foreign national should  leave the country after his/her visa expires, and that is the reason why police have not seized  passports.

While hearing a batch of petitions filed by Nigeria  nationals who have approached the court seeking bail for  criminal offences including overstaying , the bench said there was a need for a 'detention centre' to to deal with such cases and the State should have a data bank of all foreigners.

Additional Advocate General A S Ponnanna submitted to  that Section 14 of the Foreigners Act, 1946, talks about penalising foreigners who have violated provisions of the Act. The violation would attract jail term of five years. However, guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on March 12, 2014, talks about the period of blacklisting them and a penalty of $30, $130 and $230 depending on severity of  offence.

The AAG informed the bench that both these rules are not determined and are contrary to the penal provisions.

N Saraswathi, appearing for Nigeria nationals, informed the court that many foreigners are scared to visit  foreigner regional registration offices (FRRO ) as they are harassed.  Assistant Solicitor General Krishna S Dixit, argued that allegations made were baseless and granting bail to offences committed by these foreign nationals will be like legalising their stay.

FRRO officer present in the court informed that there are at least 30,000 foreign nationals who are staying in Karnataka of which nearly 1,665 of them are overstaying in Bengaluru alone. The bench reserved its order.