A Division Bench of the High Court of Bombay at Goa comprising of Justice M.S. Karnik and Justice Valmiki Menezes has today asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to decide within four weeks a fresh application of Adv. Aires Rodrigues for an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card. The Court in its order has asked Adv. Rodrigues to apply by January 30th afresh through an Online OCI application and that the officer in charge at the Embassy of India at Lisbon shall call Adv. Rodrigues on 5th February at 11.30 am to complete all the formalities.
The Court in its order has stated that the MHA has now confirmed that there are no criminal proceedings pending in any Court against Adv. Aires Rodrigues.
The Advocate representing Adv. Rodrigues had pointed out that the criminal proceedings about his alleged Dual nationality was closed by the Panaji JMFC on 25th March 2021 and that in the Criminal case pertaining to an alleged social media post that the High Court had quashed the charge sheet on 11th December last year. It was further pointed out that in a 2007 case relating to the alleged trespass into the Ribandar Church that Adv. Rodrigues and 19 other Ribandar residents were acquitted by the Court on 14th September 2011.
Adv. Raviraj Chodankar appeared for the MHA while Aires Rodrigues was represented by Senior Advocate Agnelo Diniz along with Adv. Ryan Menezes, Adv. Nigel Fernandes and Adv. Stephanie Alvares.
On 15th May 2023, Adv. Aires Rodrigues obtained a Portuguese Passport in Lisbon and on his return to Goa in the first week of June immediately surrendered his Indian Passport at the Goa Passport Office as was required by law.
After surrendering his Indian passport and obtaining a Surrender Certificate and all the other required documents he applied for his OCI card only to be told by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) at Mumbai that the new rule required six months’ residence in Goa before filing an OCI application.
After completing the requisite six months’ residence, Adv. Rodrigues once again on 25th January last year applied for an OCI card and was given an appointment on 5th of March at FRRO Mumbai for verification of his original documents which was successfully completed on that day and paying the requisite processing fee of Rs 15000. Three months later on 6th June Adv. Rodrigues received a one-line email from FRRO Mumbai that his OCI Application has been cancelled.
Aggrieved by the decision of FRRO, Mumbai, Adv. Rodrigues immediately on 20th June moved the High Court. Adv. Rodrigues in his petition submitted that the decision by FRRO Mumbai to cancel his OCI application was arbitrary, illegal, erroneous, unjust and contrary to law. Adv. Rodrigues further submitted that the mere one sentence decision by FRRO Mumbai without giving any reasons violated the principles of natural justice.
