NRI
Slovakia Appoints Indian Expat Roy CJ As Honorary Consul
Dubai-based real estate tycoon Roy CJ will head the consulate in Bengaluru.
Dubai-based Indian real estate mogul Roy CJ has been appointed as honorary consul of the Slovak Republic. The founder chairman of Confident Group will be the head of the country’s consulate in Bengaluru.
“This is a prestigious appointment since it is done by the Slovak government and ratified by the President of India,” the Khaleej Times quoted Roy as saying. “As the first NRI from the UAE to receive such a recognition from a European Union member state, I consider my posting as a great recognition and honor.”
Slovak Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Miroslav Lajcak announced Roy’s appointment as honorary consular officer. He requested the Indian government to grant Roy all the diplomatic privileges related to his mission to carry out his responsibilities.
According to Roy, the Bengaluru consulate of Slovak Republic would have the jurisdiction of affairs in Karnataka and Kerala states related to the Slovak citizens in the two states. Emergency issues and two-way trade matters also fall under the ambit of the consulate.
The Slovak consulate will be opened in the presence of Lukas Parizek, State secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, and Zigmund Bertok, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to India.
The Confident Group of Companies is headquartered in Bengaluru and has operations in Kerala, and the Gulf Cooperation Council. Roy was named the 14th in the Forbes’ list of Indian business owners in Arab world. He will assume his role on the opening day of the Slovak consulate on Sept. 27.
Role of an Honorary Consul
An Honorary Consul is not a professional diplomat. They are not official foreign service personnel and usually are expatriates and business people who have ties or other connections with the recipient country. Their duties are based on specific act of appointment by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of a particular country, which has the scope of their assigned tasks.
An honorary consul enjoys a narrower range of privileges and immunities. Their role also depends on the customary law and bilateral consular agreements between the sending country and the receiving country.
While diplomatic immunity is mostly treated in the same manner, it applies to activities related to the exercise of consular functions. The honorary consul is exempted, by the Vienna Diplomatic Conference of 1962, from the obligation to give evidence concerning matters connected with the exercise of consular functions and to present official correspondence and documents. The privileges and immunities provided for in the Convention are not extended to the family members of an honorary consular officer nor to the consulate employees.
Consulates are a branch of the embassy in the capital city of the country that usually take care of issues such as citizen services, visa, grievance redressal, trade and travel.
