Article 22 protection not citizen-centric, extends to foreign nationals in India: HC

Bengaluru: The constitutional protection under Article 22 extends to all persons within the territory of India, including foreign nationals, as it is not citizen-centric but person-centric, the high court said."Article 22(1) of the Constitution of India mandates that every person must be informed of the grounds of arrest. The requirement of informing the grounds of arrest is a mandatory constitutional safeguard and not a procedural formality," Justice M Nagaprasanna observed while granting relief to two Nigerian nationals.
The law does not prescribe a rigid form of communicating the grounds of arrest. Substantial compliance is sufficient, provided the arrested person is made aware of the basis of the arrest. The judicial review in such cases is limited to whether the grounds of arrest were communicated or not, and not the adequacy or correctness of the grounds of arrest. Finding violations of the mandate of the Apex court vis-à-vis the grounds of arrest, the petitioners are entitled to be set at liberty, the judge added.The moment the petitioners are set at liberty, they must be handed over to the FRRO for action in terms of the SOP for withdrawal of the prosecution and consequent deportation of these petitioners, as they are admittedly overstaying in India for more than 10 years without any valid documents, the judge added. Petitioners Emeka James Iwoba and Uderike Fidelis sought a direction to declare their arrest under the provisions of the NDPS Act as illegal, because they were not furnished with the grounds of arrest before their arrest and were not produced before the magistrate within 24 hours of arrest for remand. On the other hand, H Shanthi Bhushan, deputy solicitor general of India, appearing for the FRRO, submitted that the petitioners came to India in 2015 on a business visa, and the same expired in 2018. Justice Nagaprasanna noted that the petitioners are entitled to be set at liberty on the defective grounds of arrest served upon them, as there is no substantial compliance with the law laid down by the Supreme Court. A direction was also issued to the state govt to constitute a state-level screening committee and a district-level screening committee vis-à-vis overstaying foreign nationals in the state, as found in the SOP. A report on the constitution of the committees must be submitted to the court within four months.