BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has shown a degree of leniency towards a 26-year-old MBBS graduate who falsely declared her nationality as “Indian” to avail of a government medical seat to complete her course.
The court, while restraining the authorities from taking any strict action against her as she was a student, directed the recovery of all the fees from her to be paid for all five years of the MBBS course at the rate to be charged for NRI/Overseas Citizen of India The MBBS graduate, Dr Bhanu C Ramachandran, completed her schooling and college, and then her medical degree in India by availing a seat under government quota by falsely declaring her nationality as ‘Indian’ in the state although she was overstaying in the country. She came to India in 2003 on a tourist visa for six months from the US, when she was six years old.
Now, as Dr Bhanu, residing at Lakshmipuram in Mysuru, has sought to pursue a further career in the US based on the MBBS degree acquired in India, the court directed the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Immigration Officer to issue an exit permit to her only on receiving a ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the state government on payment of the fee as per the court directions.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order while partly allowing the petition filed by Dr Bhanu seeking directions to the authorities to issue an exit permit and restraining them from initiating any action against her for alleged violation of Section 4 of the Citizenship Act or Section 14 of the Foreigners Act.
‘Student’s act snatched Indian’s career’
“The petitioner has shamelessly resorted to falsehood and achieved her goals by unethical means. Curious enough, the petitioner is not even wanting to pursue her career in this country, having secured benefits throughout her career contending that she is an Indian. But she is a student, who would not be aware of the consequences of law or breach and falsehood. Therefore, this court would direct the Union of India and Bureau of Immigration, to hold their coercive arm of the law to be stretched upon the petitioner in the peculiar facts of this case, subject to the condition that the petitioner would pay all the fees, taking a lenient view of the matter,” the court observed.
The court further observed that the conduct of the petitioner misrepresenting herself to be an Indian, had snatched away the career of an Indian. In this circumstance, if the petitioner is left off the hook without any condition, it would be putting a premium on the misrepresentation that she made throughout herself to be an Indian citizen, the court added.
Dr Bhanu’s parents were citizens of India, and residents in the US, and her birth there was registered before the Indian Embassy in the US. Her mother was a single parent when she came to India on a tourist Visa in June 2003. A naturalised citizen of the US, she did not renounce her citizenship or the nationality of the US after becoming a major. She filed an application before the Bureau of Immigration for a grant of exit permit for further studies in the US, which was refused due to an unauthorised stay in India.