Overseas Citizens of India, stung by Home Ministry notification, plan to take battle to Supreme Court

The Home Ministry’s March 4 order that required skilled Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) resembling journalists, engineers and researchers to notify the Ministry about their actions in India has left them within the lurch.

A portal that was to come up for the aim shouldn’t be operational but. A Ministry official stated it was delayed as a number of officers within the Ministry’s foreigners division examined constructive for COVID-19 prior to now month. A director rank official, A. Radharani, succumbed to the virus final week.

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The official stated the OCIs may intimate the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) by means of e-mail until the portal is activated.

Dr. Rajanna Sreedhara, president of Association of Resident OCI and Families (AROCIF), stated they believed the notification was discriminatory including that they deliberate to problem it within the High Court however the plan is presently on the again burner due to the pandemic state of affairs.

NRI quota seats

On March 4, the Ministry issued a gazette notification that OCI cardholders may declare “only NRI (Non-Resident Indian) quota seats” in academic establishments.

It specified that OCIs may solely pursue the next professions — medical doctors, dentists, nurses and pharmacists, advocates, architects and chartered accountants, the remaining would require “special permission”.

OCIs are of Indian origin however maintain international passports. India doesn’t permit twin citizenship however offers sure advantages below Section 7B(I) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 to the OCIs. So far, 37.72 lakh OCI Cards are stated to have been issued.

The notification stated that OCIs shall be required to get hold of a “special permission or a special permit” from the competent authority or the FRRO or the Indian mission “to undertake research, missionary or Tabligh or mountaineering or journalistic activities or internship in any foreign diplomatic missions”.

“The notification does not mention IT professionals, a large number of OCIs are engineers; so will they have to apply for employment visa? It says permission required to conduct research…this will place undue burden on scientific, pharmaceutical, medical, biotechnology and other research fields,” he stated.

“Even if an OCI student has secured a high rank in an exam like NEET [National Eligibility Entrance Test], several institutions of repute do not have NRI seats. The exorbitantly high fees under the NRI quota cannot be afforded by many OCIs as they live and work in India. India-domiciled OCI students are deprived of domicile status both in India [country of residence] as well as the country of their citizenship,” Dr. Sreedhara stated.

Anjana Hulse, an OCI and Bengaluru resident, stated her son secured All India Rank 2 within the Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana examinations held by the federal government however we aren’t positive of getting admission within the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. “IISc does not have NRI seats and earlier it was admitting students on merit. If IISc changes it’s admission criteria based on the latest MHA notification, despite securing a high rank, I don’t know if my son can study there, since he is an OCI.

Dr. Sreedhara said though they petitioned the Ministry, the notification had only left them further confused. “The notification equates India-domiciled OCIs with a foreigner…A foreigner can only have a Portfolio Investment Scheme investment account which is a special category of investment account approved and monitored by the Reserve Bank of India with several restrictions. It has to be funded by foreign currency remittance only. An India-domiciled OCI living and working in India may not have any foreign currency funding option at all and hence may not be able to hold an investment account,” he stated.