STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH Vs. REHMATULLAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The State of U. P. has appealed to this Court on certificate of fitness granted by the Allahdbad High Court from that Court's order dated January 18, 1968 acquitting the respondent of an offence punishable under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act (Act No. 31 of 1946) . This appeal was originally heard by us on January 11 and l4, 1971, when it was considered desirable to send for the original records of the case from the Courts below and also to call for the file relating to the inquiry held by the Central Government under Section 9 (2) of the citizenship Act (Act No. 57 of 1955) into the question of the acquisition of citizenship of Pakistan by the respondent.

(2.) On July 11, 1963, the respondent was arrested for overstaying in India as a foreigner and on March 6, 1963, he was charged by the City Magistrate, Varanasi, with the commission of an offence punishable under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act, (Act No. 31 of 1946) . The charge reads:

(3.) According to the prosecution case against the respondent as put in the Trial Court, he was a Pakistani national and had on April 1, 1955, entered India on a Pakistani passport dated March 15, 1955, and an Indian Visa dated March 22, 1955, obtained by him as a Pakistani national, but even after the expiry of the permitted period he was overstaying in India without a valid passport or visa. The original visa, it is not disputed, expired in June 21, 1955, but it was extended thrice, the last extension being valid only upto May 25, 1956. Therefore the respondent went underground and has since been residing in India illegally. He was traced after several years and was arrested on July 11, 1963. The respondent pleaded in defense that though he had entered India on a Pakistani passport he was not a Pakistani national. On the contrary he claimed to be an Indian citizen and therefore rightfully living in India, According to him he had been born in Indian of Indian parents in 1932 and was an Indian citizen under the Constitution.