SYED SAFIULLAH QADRI Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application for issue of a writ of habeas corpus concerns the obligation of the Central Government under S. 9(2) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 to determine the question as to whether the detenu-Syed Amrullah Qadri -- has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of Pakistan and consequently ceased to be a citizen of India?

(2.) In the affidavit filed in support of the writ petition by one Syed Safiullah Qadri, the brother of the detenu, it was averred that the detenu was arrested on 20-6-1996 by the Inspector of Police, Special Branch, Hyderabad, the second respondent, on a complaint given by some of his (detenu's) enemies to the effect that he is not a citizen of India and although an interim injunction was obtained by the detenu by filing a suit -- O. S. No. 211 of 1991 -- on the file of the V Assistant Judge, City Civil Court for a declaration that he is a citizen of India and when the suit is still pending adjudication, attempts are being made for the deportation of the detenu to Pakistan.

(3.) An interim direction was issued by a Division Bench of this Court, to which one of us (M. N. Rao, J.,) was a party, having been satisfied that the petitioner has made out a prima facie case especially when he claimed that in spite of the subsistence of the interim injunction, the police have made attempts for the deportation of the detenu from the country, that pending further orders, the detenu shall not be deported from the country. By then, already, !he detenu was taken to Banner Checkpost (Rajasthan) of the Indo-Pakistan border and in compliance of the above directions, the detenu was brought back to Hyderabad.