Surmounting errant FROs
Dr.Mumbiram
(Querist) 17 June 2008
This query is : Resolved
Artist Mumbiram is an Indian citizen married to Nadine Grenz,a German citizen in 2002.She has a 5 year visa extension valid till 2009. Their son Hansraj Grenz was born in Alibag,south of Mumbai,in 2004.Their application for a 5 year visa extension for their son Hansraj was made at Pune FRO in Jan.2006. It was transferred to Alibag FRO in Jan. 2007. Both the FROs have failed to forward the application along with all supporting documents to the Principal Secretary (Special),Home Dept.Maharashtra who is the competent authority to grant the requested visa extension. Letters and a formal complaint to the Princ. Sec.´s office has not produced any action on our application. What course of action will get us our visa extension most expediently ?
Guest
(Expert) 17 June 2008
Apply directly to the Princpal Secretary alongwith the copies of your applications and correspondance you have in this connection. The copies you are filing must bear the acknowledgement of the lower authorities.
He may call for documents or on the basis of the said documents speeden the process.
Dr.Mumbiram
(Querist) 19 June 2008
At the FROs, acknowledgements of ‘received the application’ are not given as a routine, but only if insisted upon. We don’t have explicit acknowledgements of our visa-extension-application (originally filed at the Pune FRO). However existence of our application with them is implicit in their subsequent correspondence; such as: the letter from Pune FRO to the Alibag FRO transferring our visa-extension-case implicitly acknowledges our application with them. In all our dealings so far the FROs have not denied the existence of our application.
Your counsel of applying directly to the principal secretary is sensible.
Accordingly we plan to approach the principal secretary’s office in person in Mantralaya Mumbai. We just sincerely hope that the very existence of our application is not questioned. We feel the existence of our application is not disputed so far. That and the implicit acknowledgement of the existence of our application in their subsequent correspondence should be enough answer. Are we right ?
We do wish some magnanimous member of the legal-aid/NGO community would accompany us, when we approach the principal secretary’s office in person. It will even expose the unsavory dealings at the district-level FROs that are confronting idealist people from around the world who want to make India their home by choice. Is any one interested ?
Guest
(Expert) 19 June 2008
You are right, their correspondance will do the needful.
I am in Bangalore, Doctor.
Make an effort, it should pay dividends.
Dr.Mumbiram
(Querist) 24 June 2008
We had made a written complaint to the Principal Sec.(Special) Govt. of Maharashtra about the Alibag FRO in April 2008. No response to that has been received. Our phone call to the Jt.Dy.Sec., who is empowered to grant the five-year visa-extension, revealed that no action has been taken. Incidentally he is also the appellate authority in RTI matters relating to FROs. He expresses his inability to do anything more than writing to Alibag FRO. Clearly we have been stonewalled.
We understand it is the right of a citizen of India to get a PIO card or a five-year-visa-extension for his infant son, who was also born in India.
The Pune and Alibaug FROs as well as their superiors in the office of Principle Secretary (Special) in the Home Department of Government of Maharashtra have, through negligence and inaction, failed to give a five-year-visa-extension in reasonable time to Hansraj Grenz, Artist Dr.Mumbiram’s son, who holds a German passport.
Dr. Mumbiram’s right to get fair, equal and timely attendance to his rightful request for documents he is entitled to in every way has been violated causing grievous damages to him and his family.
We wish to file a suite for corrective orders as well as substantial compensation for the grievous damage caused in several ways.
1. The right for our son to attend school in India has been taken away.
2. Our ability to get a PIO card for Hansraj Grenz has been impacted.
3. Our ability to travel and reside in hotel-rooms has been impacted.
4. Our ability to rent residences has been impacted.
5. Our ability to travel abroad and carry on our art-business has been curtailed.
The Ministry of Home Affairs Government of India is the ultimate authority that issues PIO cards as also five-year-visa-extensions. They delegate these authorities to the Principal Secretary Home Department Govt. of Maharashtra. Therefore the Central Ministry bares the responsibility for the grievances of Dr.Mumbiram and the damages that the lawsuit seeks to get compensated.
Such gross inactions at FROs are usually signals of unlawful gratification sought by officials. If the court grants our plea it will be a great deterrent to negligence and inaction on part of errant officials
We feel we are entitled to a compensation for every day of delay after a reasonable period of six month. Depriving a child to attend school by itself is a grievous damage. The delay has also caused damage to the child’s parents as their right to travel had been abridged without a valid visa extension for their son. We propose compensation at the rate of 100 Euros a day for a period of over a year that is involved.
We have been put into emotional stress and feeling of being grounded. The immeasurable damage of the emotional life of an important artist couple is difficult to describe. The whole world is the poorer for it. However we seek only a nominal symbolic compensation at the rate of 100 Euros a day.
In what court would we file such a lawsuit ?
What are the codes of the Indian Law under which we can seek redress of our grievances and compensation for damages?
Are we right in making all the above representatives of the Government of India the respondents ?
Guest
(Expert) 25 June 2008
You can now approach the High ?Court under the Constitution of India, using power of Article 226, by way of WRIT OF MANDAMUS, wherein the government will be directed to issue the proper order or PIO or what ever you require within a fixed time after hearing the Department.
You can expose their inaction and make all of them as parties to your writ.
The hig court usually takse them to task, if you prove inaction and negiligence.
You can also ask for compensation, if found resonalbe the high court has the power to grant that.
Dr.Mumbiram
(Querist) 02 July 2008
The Wikipedia informs us: “Mandamus may be a command to do something or not to do a particular thing. Mandamus is supplemented by legal rights. It must be a judicially enforceable and legally protected right before one suffering a grievance can ask for a mandamus. A person can be said to be aggrieved only when he is denied a legal right by someone who has a legal duty to do something and abstains from doing it”.
So the question arises:
Under what provision of the constitution or under what provision of Indian Law is it Artist Dr.Mumbiram’s right to obtain a PIO-card or a five-year-visa-extension for his infant son, born in India?
It may not be the right of an alien to obtain a visa from the Indian Government, but it would be a violation of the rights of the Indian citizen Dr.Mumbiram to not get a five-year-visa-extension for his infant India born son, who qualifies for it according to the declared policies of the Central Home Department. Therefore we could write our plea for writ of mandamus on the following lines:
1. It is the right of a citizen of India to get equal and fair treatment from government and its bureaucracy. It is the declared policy of the Central Home Department to grant five-year-visa-extension and PIO cards to those who qualify for it on account of Indian citizenship of a parent or on account of birth in India. Dr.Mumbiram, an Indian Citizen, has applied to the Home Ministry on behalf of his infant son under these provisions. The inaction and negligence in processing his application by officials of the Central Home Department has violated Dr.Mumbiram’s right to get equal, fair and timely response and action on his request for something he is fully entitled to viz. a five-year-extension for his infant son who qualifies as a PIO. Therefore he is a genuine aggrieved party who can request a writ of mandamus.
2. We believe it is a mandatory, statutory and public duty of officials of the Home Department to execute the declared policy of the home department regarding visas and to respond and act upon visa-requests by Indian Citizens on behalf of their family members fairly, equally, without prejudice or bios and within reasonable time. Therefore it is within the powers of the high court to issue a writ of mandamus to such errant government officials who have shown gross negligence and inaction in executing their mandatory and routine duty and thereby violated Dr. Mumbiram´s above-mentioned rights causing him and his family grievous damage.
3. a) We are requesting the high court to issue orders to the officials of the Central and/or State Home Departments to immediately issue a visa-extension to Artist Dr.Mumbiram’s son Hansraj Grenz on the basis of valid and requisite supporting documents that we are prepared to present to the high court.
3. b) We are requesting the high court to make the respondents compensate the aggrieved Artist Dr. Mumbiram and his family.
They have suffered grievous damage caused in several ways.
1. The right for our son to attend school in India has been taken away.
2. Our ability to get a PIO card for Hansraj Grenz has been impacted.
3. Our ability to travel and reside in hotel-rooms has been impacted.
4. Our ability to rent residences has been impacted.
5. Our ability to travel abroad and carry on our art-business has been curtailed.
6. The humiliation and loss of social grace that an Indian artist of international repute cannot get routine documents for his family who are exemplary and proud members of international intellectual and artistic world. Artist Dr.Mumbiram returned to India after 12 years of academic and artistic excellence in America. He is one of the rare and proud Indians to refuse a green-card offered by the US Immigration. As early as 1978, Harvard University´s noted art critic and expert in Indian Art declared him an important Indian artist. More than 200 art-lovers from all corners of the world have visited his atelier in the heart of Pune a
Dr.Mumbiram
(Querist) 02 July 2008
We have opened the querry as above.
Prakash Yedhula
(Expert) 29 November 2008
You can file the writ petition as party in person too, though it is advisable to engage a lawyer.
You need to file a paper book containing the documents supporting your case.
