NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday recalled its order quashing the Centre’s decision to reject the plea of Siddharth Varadarajan, founder editor of The Wire, seeking to convert his status as a person of Indian origin to that of an overseas citizen of India, saying he is prima facie guilty of suppression of facts.
Justice Puruchindra Kumar Kaurav also referred to his May 13 order asking authorities to consider the US citizen’s application for a “return visa” and allow him to travel to Estonia between May 14 and 19.
The judge said the journalist had failed to disclose the existence of a 2020 Allahabad High Court order that granted him anticipatory bail in a criminal case and imposed conditions, such as surrendering his passport and restricting travel abroad without permission of the court concerned.
Stating that it is always believed that the petitioner approaches the court with “full disclosure”, Justice Kaurav issued notice to Vardarajan and asked him to file an affidavit in seven working days explaining his conduct.
“A perusal of the pleadings and submissions made so far by the petitioner, nowhere reveals the directions binding the Allahabad High Court on the petitioner. In all fairness, the petitioner should have truthfully disclosed the said aspect. Prima facie the court is of the opinion that the petitioner is guilty of concealing material facts,” the court said.
“All orders passed by the court in the petition are withdrawn. The petition has been restored.”
Vardaranjan’s chief lawyer apologized to the court, saying she had “lost her mind” on the matter.
Justice Kaurav emphasized that as a general rule, a litigant is not entitled to relief in such circumstances, and the court needs to deter abuse of court process by deceiving it.
Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, appearing for the Centre, said the material found against the petitioner was “disturbing”.
He said police summons had been issued to the petitioner in the past in connection with the criminal case, and the Allahabad High Court order was “easily quashed” by the court.
A chargesheet in the case has also been filed in a trial court in Uttar Pradesh, ASG Sharma said.
The case stems from certain allegedly objectionable tweets by Varadarajan against state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The court asked the petitioner to file the statement, saying it would have “severe consequences. This will lead to a very unpleasant situation.”
After hearing the parties, Justice Kaurav said the petitioner should explain his conduct and “depending on that, the court will decide whether the court has to take some action against the petitioner or we have to leave the matter at that” and listed the matter for hearing on May 25.
On May 12, the court granted relief to Varadarajan by quashing the Centre’s refusal to convert his status as a person of Indian origin to an overseas citizen of India due to lack of grounds for refusal.
The journalist’s lead lawyer reported that he held a PIO card, and while all such cards were automatically considered OCI cards after 2015, his PIO card was no longer readable and he had to apply for conversion.
The Center rejected the request to transfer Varadarajan’s PIO card to OCI and sent the impugned communication to him on April 2, it said.
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