Police should act sensibly, cautiously with foreign nationals: Kerala High Court quashes case against Pakistani Nationals

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday pulled up the Police for unjustifiably registering a case against two Pakistani Nationals who had visited India for medical treatment (Imran Muhammad & Ors. v. State of Kerala & Anr.)..Single-judge Justice K Haripal quashed the First Information Report (FIR) registered against them under the Foreigners Act of 1946 and ordered issuance of clearance certificate.The Court stated that when registering a case against foreign nationals, Police must have sufficient cause for doing the same which did not exist in the instant case."It is expected that when foreign nationals are involved, responsible officials would exhibit little more sensibility and act cautiously. Exception has to be taken for registering a crime at the drop of a hat. Here absolutely no reason is made out for initiating criminal prosecution against the petitioners," the Court said. .The Court also opined that there seems to have been oversight on the part of the police as they couldn't justify the registration of the FIR under the Foreigners Act."It appears that there was lack of co-ordination in the police department. The respondents have no case that petitioners have violated the terms of the visa or the residential permits or had caused any threat to the national security or done anything prejudice to our interests. The crime was registered without making proper enquiry or doing home work by the respondents," the Bench stated..It went on to say that such actions of the police only bring shame to the law enforcement system as a whole."It further In no stretch of imagination, the act of the respondents in registering a crime against the petitioners can be justified. In my view, in fact such an act of the City Commissioner of Police has only brought ignominy to our system," the judgment said..The judgment was delivered on a petition moved by two Pakistani nationals who had visited India, specifically Ernakulam, Kerala to avail specialist medical services after obtaining the necessary medical visa to do the same. The petitioners, one seeking medical treatment and the other, his attendant, upon arrival at the hospital in Kerala, claimed to have immediately contacted the City Police Commissioner.The hospital authorities had also informed the relevant authorities of their arrival.The petitioners submitted that upon completion of the treatment within a month, they decided to leave India but upon reaching the Chennai Airport, they were not allowed to leave the country for want of police clearance certificate.Therefore, they returned to Kerala but they claimed that the City Police Commissioner declined to grant clearance certificate.Instead, a crime was registered against them alleging offences under Sections 11 and 14 of the Foreigners Act and that prompted the petitioners to approach the Court, they submitted. Senior Advocate VJ Mathew, appearing for the petitioners, contended that this was a clear abuse of the process of law. He relied on the decisions in Kapil Agarwal & Ors v. Sanjay Sharma & Ors and Parbatbhai Aahil & Ors v. State of Gujarat & Anr to buttress his arguments. .Public prosecutor P Narayanan opposed the closing of the FIR but the Court noted that neither was a case under Section 11 of the Foreigners Act attracted, nor did the public prosecutor challenge the genuineness of the documents presented by the petitioners. Therefore, it agreed that the actions of the police in registering the FIR were a clear abuse of the process of law..The Court, therefore, quashed the FIR as it did not disclose a cognizable offence that necessitated investigation by the police."It is the settled proposition of law that where the allegations made in the FIR or the complaint even if they are taken at their face value and accepted in their entirety, do not prima facie constitute any offence or make out a case against the accused or where the allegations in the FIR and other materials do not disclose a cognizable offence justifying investigation by police, the court is justified in quashing the proceedings at the threshold," the judgment stated.The Court also ordered the Police to issue clearance certificate to the petitioners within a period of three days. [Read Judgment]