Supreme Court Dismisses Plea By Minor OCI Card Holders Seeking To Represent India In International Sports
The Supreme Court today dismissed a Writ Petition filed by two minor overseas citizens of India seeking to participate in national and international chess tournaments on behalf of India. The Plea sought quashing of the Policy of the Government of India issued by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) 2008 and 2009 by which the OCI Card Holders have been restrained from participating and representing India in international sports events.
The Vacation Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Pankaj Mithal asked "Why Article 32?" and remarked, "Don't initiate the minor children into litigation at such a nascent stage, this is not good. A 7-year-old child from day one is going to participate in a tournament on the basis of the Court order? If is it affecting your right, the policy is arbitrary and not correct go in 226. Let us have the benefit of 226 Court judgement".
Appearing for the minor Petitioners in the petition filed through Advocate-on-Record Rooh-E-Hina Dua, Advocate Abhimanyu Bhandari submitted that Petitioners are two minor British nationals with an OCI card and their father is an Indian national and the mother is a British national. Advocate Bhandari further submitted that he approached the Apex Court under Article 32 because multiple High Courts had taken divergent views on similar matters. "32 because Delhi High Court has taken a view and Chandigarh High Court has taken a different view, there are 2 views." submitted the counsel.
Expressing their unwillingness to entertain the matter, the Court ordered, "The writ petition filed under Article 32 is dismissed as withdrawn, with liberty to the Petitioners to approach the competent High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution".
In the Writ Petition moved by the minors through their father, it was contended that the denial of participation of OCI in International chess tournaments representing India, is completely discriminatory, arbitrary, unlawful and in violation of the rights granted to the OCI under Section 7B of the Citizenship Act, 1955 read with the Constitution of India.
It was submitted that the Petitioners who were entitled to participate in national before the impugned Notifications, have been preparing and training for the same for several years and the rights given to the Petitioners cannot be unilaterally taken away abruptly. It stated that the plea is filed for the protection of the fundamental rights of OCI Cardholders like the Petitioners, under Articles 14, 21 and 21-A of the Constitution of India.
The Plea stated that the Notification of Government of India (GOI) 2005 that had earlier granted the status of OCI Card Holders in parity with ‘Non-Resident Indian’ (NRI) in respect of all facilities available to them in economic, financial and educational fields to the Petitioners have been taken away and curtailed unilaterally and leaves them to be treated as ‘foreigners’ by way of the GOI notification 2021.
"The GOI 2021 cannot be applied retrospectively and can only be applied prospectively to persons who have secured OCI Card after 04.03.2021 as held by this Hon’ble Court in the judgment of “Anushka Rengunthwar & Ors. V. Union of India & Ors.” dated 03rd February 2023 and thus the Petitioners are liable to treated equally in field of education with NRIs." read the plea.
The Plea also highlighted that the Petitioners in the present case are minors and it is only after they attain the age of 18 years that they shall have the right to elect their choice of citizenship and till then they are not entitled to renounce any citizenship already acquired by them. It was also submitted in the plea that the Supreme Court is also seized of a similar question of law involving whether Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) can be exempted from the Foreign Exchange Management Act’s (FEMA) norms and has recently issued a notice to the Central Government.
Cause Title: Amaya Agarwal & Anr v. All India Chess Federation & Ors. [W.P.(C) No. 374/2023]