Delhi HC issues notice to MEA, Immigration bureau after US national detained at Chennai airport

In a special hearing conducted at 7.30 pm on Friday, the Delhi High Court issued notice to the Central government and the Immigration Bureau for allegedly denying a US national to enter in India despite having a valid business visa.

A bench of Justice S Muralidhar and Justice I S Mehta sought a reply from the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Delhi government among others on a habeas corpus petition filed for the safety and security of Kasha Elizabeth Vande, the US national who has been running a boutique and a café in Puducherry for the last 10 years.

The court’s direction came on a plea by Lal Babu Lalit whom 39-year-old Vande had written a mail after her alleged illegal detention at Chennai Airport on Friday.

The plea filed through advocate Kamlesh Kumar Mishra alleged that Vande was illegally detained at Chennai Airport after arriving by a Kuwait Airlines at 1.30 am on Friday. In the mail, claimed to have written to Lalit, she went to the immigration counter after her arrival.

Thereafter an officer asked her that she had some mark on her file and she would have to leave the country. Following this, she sought permission to contact her lawyers but when none of her contacts replied since it was the wee hours in the morning, she sought help at the immigration counter at the airport.

The plea stated that since Vande’s alleged illegal detention’s decision was taken by the officers in Delhi, so it is under the jurisdiction of the Delhi High Court to hear the case.

The petition prayed that the whereabouts of the missing person be traced and it be ensured that she is safe and secure.