Activist whose RTI flagged ‘Smriti Irani-linked Goa cafe’ alleges home ministry ‘witch-hunt’

A Goa-based activist has alleged that he is being targeted for taking up public interest issues against “successive governments” and for trying to point to alleged illegalities surrounding BJP leader and former minister Smriti Irani’s daughter’s cafe in Goa through RTI applications. 

Aires Rodrigues, a 64-year-old activist, was granted relief on July 25 when the Bombay High Court ruled in his favour. The court had directed the centre to consider his application for Overseas Citizen of India status while noting that the Foreigners Regional Registration Office – under the union ministry of home affairs’ foreigners division – lacked the required jurisdiction and reasons to reject his application. But he said the FRRO website already shows the status of the same application as “closed”.

The activist had approached the court against the FRRO and the union ministry of home affairs after his application was rejected twice. He had first applied for OCI status in June last year – days after he had surrendered his Indian passport when he acquired a Portuguese passport. And he had applied again on January 25 this year.

Individuals born in Goa before December 19, 1961 – the day the state was liberated from colonial rule – can get Portuguese citizenship along with their children and grandchildren, as per Portuguese law. Since Indian law doesn’t allow dual citizenship, an OCI status is seen as their best bet.

‘Hope MHA will be fair’

“Last year, after opting for a Portuguese passport, I had applied for OCI and was told that I should be residing in India for six months before applying. After six months, I reapplied and was told in three months that my application was canceled. It is pertinent to note that despite the high court order being passed on July 25 and being communicated to the MHA and FRRO immediately, the website of the FRRO Mumbai still shows the status of my application as ‘application closed’. The attitude of the government could not be more obvious,” he told Newslaundry.

“Over the last few decades, I have in public interest taken up issues against successive governments. But I don’t think I deserve to be selectively targeted because of that. Maybe I am paying the price for having taken on the might of Smriti Irani…I hope the MHA will be fair and just while not being influenced by forces that want to be vindictive…In case of a continued witch-hunt, I hope to get justice from god and the judiciary.”

Newslaundry has reached out to the MHA for comment. This report will be updated if a response is received.

The court’s remarks

After surrendering his Indian passport and obtaining a surrender certificate along with all the required documents, Rodrigues had first applied online for his OCI card. However, the FRRO in Mumbai told him that he needed to reside in Goa for six months before applying for an OCI card as per new rules. He had returned to India after a foreign tour.

After six months, he applied online again on January 25 this year and got an appointment at the FRRO in Mumbai for March 5 to verify his original documents. He paid Rs 15,000 as fee and his verification was completed. But three months later, on June 6, he got an email from the FRRO stating that his OCI application had been canceled under Rule 32(2) of Citizenship Rules, 2009.

The activist then approached the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court on June 20. In his petition, he called the FRRO’s decision arbitrary and erroneous and claimed that a one-sentence decision without any explanation violated principles of natural justice.

The petition stated that the FRRO acted without and/or in excess of power, authority and jurisdiction and in contravention to the provisions  of section 7A of the Citizenship Act,1955. It erred in applying rule 32(2) of the rules, which in any event doesn’t empower FRRO with the authority to cancel any application for an OCI card, it claimed.

On July 25, a division bench of Justices MS Karnik and Justice Valmiki Menezes set aside the FRRO’s order. “The impugned communication doesn’t cite any reasons for rejection nor refers to the adverse material against the petitioner, enabling him to participate in any inquiry to explain such adverse information,” the court said.

Saying that the FRRO has no jurisdiction to cancel the OCI application, it stated, “Notwithstanding the fact that impugned communication rejecting the OCI application is issued by an authority without jurisdiction, the order itself cites no reasons or refer to material which constitutes the adverse information against the applicant…the central government is hereby directed to consider the application of the petitioner for the grant of OCI card within a period of 30 days from the receipt of this order.”

Newslaundry had earlier reported on the activist’s RTI applications and the alleged illegalities in the liquor license of the Silly Souls cafe in Assagao area.

Irani had denied that her family ran the restaurant and pointed out that neither the RTI reply nor the excise notice mentioned her family. She had trashed all the allegations as a “conspiracy” and sent a legal notice to three Congress leaders for allegedly maligning her family.