BENGALURU: Directing to release the two Nigerians, who were overstaying in the country over 10 years without any documents and caught in possession of 400 grams of MDMA and Cocaine, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday ordered that they must be handed over to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) to take further action in terms of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for withdrawal of prosecution and consequent deportation of both of them.
Justice M Nagaprasanna pronounced the order, allowing in part the petition filed by Emeka James Iwoba, aka Austin Noso Iwoba and Uderike Fidelis, who moved the High Court, questioning their arrest by the Sampigehalli police, on the basis of not communicating the grounds of arrest.
On the contention whether the petitioners--Nigerian nationals are entitled to constitutional protection under Article 22 of the Constitution of India requires an answer, the court stated that Article 22(1) 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. The constitutional protection under Article 22 extends to all, including foreign nationals, as it is not citizen-centric but person-centric, it said.
The court added that 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.
The court further stated that, as they were admittedly overstaying in this country for more than 10 years without any valid documents, only on this score that one or the other prosecution is pending against them, and the present case concerns the recovery of 400 grams of MDMA from the hands of the petitioners.
The court directed the state government to form state and district screening panels under the SOP and report compliance within four months.