Uttarakhand HC stays deportation of Pakistani Sikh family on long-term visa

Dehradun: Uttarakhand high court (HC) has directed the state govt not to deport a Pakistani Sikh family living in Dehradun on a long-term visa unless they constitute a risk to national security. A single bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari was hearing a petition challenging a govt directive asking the family — staying at Vasant Vihar in Dehradun since 2019 — to leave the country within 24 hours. The court on Thursday instructed the central and state govts to jointly take a considered decision and file their reply before the next hearing, listed for June 15. Hailing from Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, Manjit Singh, 55, is a supplier of polishing materials in Dehradun. His lawyer, Vikas Kumar Guglani, told TOI that he had arrived in India with his family on a long-term visa in 2019 and had extended its validity until Dec 10, 2026. On May 15, the state govt issued him a notice to leave the country within 24 hours; he received this notice on June 2 and subsequently challenged the order by filing a petition. Guglani said, “The notice sent to my client did not state any reason or grounds for asking him to leave the country within 24 hours. It merely mentioned in a single sentence that an email regarding this matter had been received from the Union ministry of home affairs.” In the petition, he maintained that his visa is still valid and drew attention to his family circumstances. Singh has three children — an elder daughter studying BTech, a second daughter studying BDS and a young son — and asked that they be permitted to remain in India for the full visa period. During the hearing, the govt submitted that the ITBP headquarters is close to the family’s home, which could raise national security concerns, and therefore argued that Singh should be sent back to Pakistan.