Court Directs Central Govt to Compensate NRI’s Father for Indian Consulate’s Negligence

The Kerala High Court has asked the central government to pay Rs 17.79 lakh compensation to a father whose son died in Dubai almost 20 years back, and who lost the compensation ordered by a Dubai court due to the negligence of the Consulate General of India.

The court directed the central government, the consulate, as well as the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs to jointly pay the compensation to KO Oommen of Manimala in Kottayam, the father of late Sunil Oommen, who met with a motor accident and died around 20 years ago. Sunil was an employee in a private company in Dubai, the Times of India reported.

The order was given by a division bench consisting of Chief Justice Antony Dominic and Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu after considering an appeal filed by the government challenging a single bench ruling, the New Indian Express reported.

“Therefore, not only was there negligence on the part of the center and others, but the investigating agency also suspected the involvement of the employees of the Consulate General in the fraud,” the court said, according to NIE.

The Preliminary Court of Dubai in 1999 awarded a compensation of Dh 1,50,000, which was equivalent to Rs 17.79 lakh at that point, to Sunil’s legal heirs.

Oommen wrote to the central government in October 1999 so the required action could be initiated to obtain the compensation. The consulate in December 1999 asked Oommen for documents like legal heirship certificate and a power of attorney and he provided these documents to them by March 2000.

The consulate on March 27, 2000, asked him to submit translated copies that were attested and in October 2001, the documents were finally submitted in the Dubai court. “However, the Dubai Court informed the Consulate General the amount was released to a Jaswinder Singh Bangar in 2001 on the basis of a Power of Attorney Bangar produced before the Dubai court,” Oommen said, the New Indian Express reported.

Oommen then went to the high court. A single bench held that the consulate had been negligent and caused delay in collecting the documents. A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR with regard to this case had shown that consulate employees could have possibly been associated with the fraud.

According to the court, a statement from CBI pointed out that Bangar falsely got the compensation, after colluding with some personnel of the office of the Consulate General of India in Dubai.