TUDOR GUNASEKHAR JAYAVARDENE Vs. GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is filed by a foreigner. It is to quash an order of deportation passed by the Central Government. The impugned order ordered him and all the other members of his family to leave the country forth with, bag and baggage. The petitioner's contention is that this order is without jurisdiction and also mal a fide in certain respects.

(2.) THE Central Government have taker. to heart this challenge to their order. THEy are fighting this writ petition as if it were a test case. THEir stand is that orders of deportation are matters touching the sovereignty of the State. THEy are political acts. THEy may raise issues of international law; but the Courts of the land, even the superior courts, are not competent to enter into the why and the wherefore of the orders of deportation.

(3.) TO foreigners in India, the relevant Code now is the foreigners Act, 1946 (Central Act XXXI of 1946 ). The Act regards as foreigners all those who are rot citizens of India . The petitioner is not a citizen of Indi a , but of Sri Lanka . He is, therefore, by definition, a foreigner. But, he is a foreigner only in a manner of speaking. He is, in law, foreigner with a difference. As I shall presently show, this important qualification has been missed in the present case in the treatment accorded to the petitioner.