New Zealand YouTuber Karl Rock barred from entering India, wife moves Delhi High Court

-

YouTuber Karl Edward Rice, also known as Karl Rock, has alleged that his visa was cancelled after he left India in October 2020 and the government has barred him from entering the country. The New Zealand national is married to an Indian, Manisha Malik, and has been blacklisted by the Centre as he has allegedly violated the terms of his visa.

The YouTuber got married in 2019 and often shares tips for foreigners travelling to India.

Highlighting his struggle to visit his wife, Karl Rock addressed a tweet to New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern. In his tweet, the vlogger also claimed that the government banned him without giving a reason after he left India. Since then, he has been separated from his wife and family who are in the National Capital.

In a video posted from his YouTube channel and shared on Twitter, Rock claimed that he had not seen his wife in 269 days. He also claimed that he wasn't given a reason for being added to the blacklist.

"I left India in October 2020 to travel to Dubai and Pakistan. When I left through the New Delhi International Airport, they cancelled my Visa. They would not tell me why they were cancelling my visa," he alleged. He was apparently informed by the Indian High Commission in Dubai that he had been blacklisted.

He alleged that his attempts to get answers and to get help from the Indian High Commissioner in Wellington and the home ministry were ignored.

Rock said he had donated plasma twice to the Delhi plasma bank and had been appreciated by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for the plasma donation.

Rock also put up the link to a petition on Twitter and tagged diplomats, journalists, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kejriwal.

Union home ministry officials had on Friday said the New Zealand national has been restricted from entering India till the next year for violating terms and conditions of his visa. He was found to be doing business activities on a tourist visa and also violating other visa conditions, they had said without specifying.

His wife, who lives in the Pitampura in the National Capital, has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court challenging the decision to blacklist him and deny visa to enter India.

The petitioner said by virtue of denying visa to her husband, who has been "arbitrarily blacklisted" by the respondents (Centre), she is deprived from living with him, thereby violating her fundamental right to life and dignity as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

It said the authorities have not communicated the grounds of blacklisting Rice even though several representations have been preferred by him and his wife, which has led to the separation of a married couple, lack of any opportunity or notice to them to indicate any violation of visa conditions and denial of issuance of visa to him.

Terming the Centre's move an arbitrary abuse of power, the plea said it violates the petitioner's rights under Article 19 (protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech) of the Constitution.

Subsequent to their marriage, Rice was granted an X-2 Visa (meant for spouse/children of an Indian citizen) which had a validity period of May 2019 to May 2024 and one of the conditions in the visa for him was to exit India every 180 days or to intimate the Foreigner Regional Registration Office concerned.

"Complying with the aforesaid condition of exiting the nation, while Rice left India on 10 October, 2020, he has not been able to return to India because any application for issuance of an Indian visa is being rejected by the respondents," the petition states.

The petition has arrayed Centre, through the Ministry of Home Affairs, FRRO and Bureau of Immigration as parties.

The plea sought direction to the authorities to call for records pertaining to cancellation of visa and unilateral blacklisting of Rice and also sought to review or quash the decision blacklisting him and allow him entry to India. As an alternative, the plea sought to direct the authorities to grant a meaningful hearing to the couple on the sudden blacklisting of Rice.

The plea is likely to come up for hearing next week.

With inputs from PTI



from Firstpost India Latest News https://ift.tt/3hUbO4W
FP Trending

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Both COVID-19 vaccine doses needed for good protection against B16172 variant

-
It’s been a concerning few weeks in the UK, with the B16172 variant first taking hold and then spreading to become dominant. This more infectious form of the virus, initially identified in India, is what we’re now going to have to live with – unless it is out-competed by another variant in the future. Worryingly, experts had predicted that B16172 might be able to escape some of the effects of vaccines, which if true would threaten to derail the UK’s plans to finish lifting restrictions from the end of June. However, Public Health England (PHE) has looked at the ability of various variants to evade immunity and says that the UK’s vaccines remain effective against the variants circulating, including B16172. On the surface, this looks like good news. But delve a bit deeper, and things get more complicated, says Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia. PHE’s research found a little drop-off in protection against B16172 among people who were fully vaccinated.
Read more

New coronavirus variant emerge in India: How should our COVID response change?

-
Image
After genome sequencing of over 10,000 COVID-19 cases in India, researchers have discovered a new variant with two new mutations which may be better at evading the immune system. In 15-20 percent of samples from the Indian state of Maharashtra (the state accounting for 62 percent of cases in the country) a new, double mutation in key areas of the virus has been detected. These are now known as the E484Q and L452R mutations. What makes the variant different? Both these mutations are concerning because they are located in a key portion of the virus – the spike protein – that it uses to penetrate human cells. Spike proteins attach via a “receptor binding domain”, meaning the virus can attach to receptors in our cells. These new mutations include changes to the spike protein that make it a “better fit” for human cells. This means the virus can gain entry more easily and multiply faster. Given what we have seen with other similar mutations , it might also make it harder for our immu
Read more

120 flights delayed, 30 trains running late; Delhi fog & cold wave continue to give shiver to travellers

-
Arrival and departure of 120 flights, both domestic and international, to Delhi airport were affected due to dense fog and cold wave conditions on Wednesday, according to Delhi Airport FIDS (Flight Information Display System). As per the Delhi Airport FIDS, a total of 53 flights, including 21 domestic arrivals, 16 domestic departures, 13 international departures and three international arrivals scheduled are cancelled and not operating due to fog and other operational reasons from and to Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in the national capital on 17 January. #WATCH | Delhi: Several flight operations delayed at IGI airport due to low visibility amid fog. pic.twitter.com/hG1DUKllEt — ANI (@ANI) January 17, 2024 Visuals from the Delhi airport showed passengers waiting outside, checking update of their scheduled flights. There were also some people waiting for flight of their families, friends and loved ones to arrive, which got delayed due to fog. #WATCH | Delhi | Pas
Read more