The Gujarat High Court on Monday allowed a Pakistani national, who was acquitted during a fake currency case, to travel back to his home country and asked authorities to finish formalities for his return.
A division bench of Justices Sonia Gokani and NV Anjaria directed the Railway police in Surat city to issue the Pakistani man, Sajjad Burhanuddin Vora, a no objection certificate (NOC) for him to get the specified exit permit.
The bench disposed of a habeas corpus plea moved by the Pakistani High Commission while directing the Superintendent of Police, Surat Railway police, to issue him the NOC by August 29 for him to visit his country.
A habeas corpus plea may be a petition filed to make sure an individual under arrest is brought before a court to work out if the detention is legal.
The court also directed the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) to issue the exit permit and also waive all leviable fees of overstay, among other things, within a period of seven days from the date of NOC.
Vora, a resident of Karachi, was in 2016 found in possession of faux demonetised currency notes by the Surat Railways police when he was on thanks to Mumbai along side his relatives to attend a spiritual function, police had said.
He was later acquitted within the case by an area court in Surat, which, however, didn’t allow him to go away India because the appeal against his acquittal moved by the government within the supreme court was pending.
The HC had in July 2019 dismissed the appeal.
However, the local police refused to offer him an NOC without which his return to Pakistan wasn’t possible because the FRRO asked for the document.
In its order on August 17, the Supreme Court also dismissed an appeal against his acquittal moved by the government .
Through his lawyer Aum Kotwal, Vora had last month approached the supreme court seeking its direction to the police to issue him NOC.
The Pakistan High Commission later filed a habeas corpus petition within the court, saying Vora was being held against his will.
