A H MAGERMANS Vs. S K GHOSH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, A.H. Magermans, is a Belgian national. He arrived in India, on November 23, 1947, with a Belgian Passport and a Visa for India issued by the Visa section of the British Embassy, at Brussels. The visa was issued either at the request of the Head of the Catholic Church St. Michael of Brussels (as stated in the affidavit-in-opposition, affirmed by Ajoy Kumar Dey, Inspector of Police Security Control) or at the request of the Head of the Society of Jesus, residing at St. Michael's College, Brussels (as the petitioner affirms), in order to enable the, petitioner to take up missionary work in India. After arrival in India, the petitioner did some work connected with the Jesuit Mission at Calcutta and Ranchi and thereafter severed his connection with the Mission, in or about February 3, 1952, and adapted himself to secular life. The fact of this severance was brought to the notice of the officer-in-charge of the Department of Registration of Foreigners, in Calcutta, by the Superior Regular, Calcutta Jesuit Mission, in his letter dated December 3, 1953 (Annexure "A" to the affidavit-in-opposition, affirmed by Ajoy Kumar Dey.)

(2.) On severance of his connection with the Jesuit Mission, the petitioner entered in the service of different commercial establishments in Calcutta. His application for extension of the period of stay in India was not granted by the Government of India, firstly, because he had changed the nature of his work in India and, secondly, because his employers were not willing to furnish the usual financial guarantee on behalf of the petitioner. Then ensued a long and protracted struggle, put up by the petitioner, to frustrate all attempts to make him leave India. Ultimately, however, the petitioner left India on or about April 21, 1957. Thus ended the first chapter of the petitioner's stay in India.

(3.) In July 1957, Messrs. Leonard Biermans Turnhout, a company carrying on manufacturing business in India, approached the Government of India with a request to allow the petitioner to enter India and take up duties as Manager of the Calcutta Office of the company, to which post the petitioner had been appointed. The Government of India was at first reluctant to grant the request and issue visa to the petitioner but ultimately, for reasons, best known to itself, agreed to authorise the entry of the petitioner to India, on an undertaking 'given by him in writing that he would not prolong his stay in India beyond the period of one year.