Decide US-based Indian Doctor’s Plea Within 8 Weeks, HC Tells Centre

The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre to decide within eight weeks on the plea of a US-based Indian-origin doctor. Christo Thomas Philip, a medical doctor specialising in emergency medicine, had challenged the cancellation of his OCI registration for alleged missionary activities in Bihar.

Centre to Decide

Justice Vibhu Bakhru issued the direction to the central government, saying that under the Citizenship Act 1955, the petitioner, Philip, can seek for revision of the decision taken by the Consulate General of India at Houston in USA to cancel his Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) registration.

In his plea filed through his advocate Dhiraj Philip, Philip said that he was a volunteer doctor with Duncan Hospital at Raxaul in Bihar from January 2014, but in April 2016, he was allegedly “unlawfully deported” from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, PTI reported.

Put in Detention

Philip said that he was put in detention at the airport while his wife and children were allowed to go through immigration. He was then sent back to Istanbul in Turkey from where his flight from Spain had arrived. There he was kept in a cell with 25 others for  a day. He was then sent to Spain, according to the petition.

In his plea, Philip claims that he wasn’t told why he was deported, adding that while in detention he was “deprived of his dignity and treated in an inhumane manner at the detention centre in Delhi and Istanbul in gross violation of his fundamental right to life and liberty.”

OCI Cancelled

A look out circular (LOC) was also issued against him by the government, he states in his plea. Earlier this year in May, during the hearing of his first petition challenging his deportation, the government had informed him that on August 1 his OCI registration stood cancelled.

He then moved a fresh plea challenging the cancellation of his OCI registration.

The Indian-origin doctor was born in Kerala to Indian parents. During the hearing, the government had said that it was recommending cancellation of his OCI registration for “indulging in evangelical and subversive activities”.