The petitioners have preferred present petition seeking below mentioned reliefs:- “12(A) Your Lordships may kindly be pleased to declare that the petitioner no.1 still remains an Indian Citizen and should be treated as such and the minor petitioner no.2 who is not having other guardian except petitioner no.1 being a son of Indian Citizen may also be declare as Indian Citizen.
(B) The Hon'ble Court may be pleased to direct the respondent no.1 to handover return the Indian Passport No.E479848 issued by the respondent no.4 and held by the Indian Embassy Islamabad on issuing of a receipt without any justification by them to the petitioner no.1.”
2. In support of the reliefs prayed for by the petitioners, the petitioner no.1 has claimed that the petitioner no.2 is his son born in Pakistan.
The petitioner no.1 has also claimed that originally, he was citizen of India and was holding passport No.E479848 which was issued by respondent no.4 in the year 1988. The petitioner no.1 has also claimed that at the relevant time, election card was issued in his name. The petitioner no.1 has further claimed that he was born at Junagadh and studied at Junagadh until 9th standard.
It is also claimed by the petitioner no.1 that he worked for 29 days as peon in the State Bank of Saurashtra. It is also claimed by the petitioner no.1 that he was also issued ration card No.JN-41292 issued by the Mamlatdar, Junagadh.
2.1 It is pertinent that somewhere in 1992, the petitioner no.1 applied for visitor's visa to visit Pakistan and he was granted visitor's visa for 3 months and he travelled to Pakistan.
It is also submitted that in Pakistan, he married one Pakistani girl and stayed in Pakistan even after expiry of visa period and his wife (whom he married in Pakistan) gave birth to a child. After completion of visit period, which was of 3 months, the petitioner no.1 came back to India in 1993 for brief period and again went back to Pakistan, after obtaining valid visa.
2.2 The petitioner no.1 has claimed that during his stay in Pakistan, now, he has two children i.e. one son and one daughter.
It is also claimed that his passport expired on 27.7.1998 and at that time, he submitted his passport to Indian Embassy for renewal in Pakistan. The petitioner no.1 has claimed that the passport has not been returned by the Embassy to the petitioner no.1 and he was left with no document to travel back to India.
Subsequently, the petitioner applied for and was granted Pakistani passport.
3. Thus, as of now, the petitioner no.1's original passport has expired and the petitioner no.1 has obtained Pakistani passport.
It also appears from the facts mentioned by the petitioners that the petitioner no.1, probably, has voluntarily acquired citizenship of Pakistan and now, he holds passport issued by Pakistan Government.
It also appears from the submission by learned advocate for the petitioners and from the record that this time, the petitioners have travelled on passport issued by the authorities in Pakistan (Pakistani Passport No.B0627811) and his son has travelled along with him (Pakistani Passport No.B3361518).
4. In this background, the petitioners have claimed that the petitioners do not want to go back to Pakistan and the petitioners have decided to stay in India and want to cut off relations with petitioner No.1's wife who is in Pakistan.
4.1 The petitioner no.1 has claimed that his visa expires on 26.10.2012. Therefore, he has preferred present petition seeking abovequoted reliefs.
5. What emerges from the facts stated in the petition and submissions made by learned advocate for the petitioner is that, except brief visit in 1993 all along for about 20 years, he has stayed in Pakistan, has married there, has two children from the marriage and he has voluntarily acquired citizenship of that other country and now holds passport of that country and has come to India on passport of that other country.
It also emerges that until now, the petitioners have not completed any formality of submitting any application in the prescribed format to the competent authority for any purpose whatsoever, including the purpose of extension of visa or for Indian Citizenship or for any purpose whatsoever.
Any application for himself and/or his son is not made until now before any authority.
Without submitting any application, the petitioners have preferred present petition.
The petitioners have admitted that as of today, the petitioners have citizenship of Pakistan and hold Pakistani passport and have travelled to Indian on Pakistani passport.
5.1 Under the circumstances, present petition, at this stage, is wholly premature.
When the petitioners have not taken even first step as required in law for the purpose for which the petition is preferred, the reliefs prayed for in present petition cannot be granted, at this stage.
However, it would be open to the petitioners to take appropriate steps in accordance with law for the purpose for which the petitioners have taken out present petition and pursue the remedy before the competent authority.
If and when such application is made, the competent authority may consider the same in accordance with law and present order will not stand in way of the petitioners.
With the aforesaid observations and clarifications, present petition stands disposed of.
(K.M.Thaker, J.) kdc