Delhi High Court Recalls Order Granting Relief To The Wire's Siddharth Varadarajan Against Rejection Of OCI Card

The Delhi High Court on Thursday said that The Wire's Founding Editor Siddharth Varadarajan is prima facie guilty of “suppressing material facts”, regarding bail conditions imposed upon him by the Allahabad High Court, in his plea seeking OCI card.

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav asked Varadarajan to file an affidavit explaining his conduct, while also recalling its earlier order setting aside Central Government's decision rejecting his request for conversion of his PIO card to OCI card.

During the hearing, ASG Chetan Sharma appearing for the Union Government, along with CGSC Ashish Dixit, said that some “disconcerting material” had emerged after the last hearing.

He said that the Allahabad High Court's order of 2020 was “conveniently” suppressed by Varadarajan which expressly put conditions on him that he shall not leave India during the currency of trial without prior permission from the trial Court and that he shall surrender his passport to the trial Court.

Senior Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan for Varadarajan said that this development had skipped her mind and that the same was not intentional.

On this, the Court said that Varadarajan will have to file an affidavit explaining his conduct and that serious consequences would entail, and the same will lead to an unpleasant situation.

“We have to test your forgetting of this order. If we accept apology like this then it will lead to a serious situation in court. We always believe that the petitioner is approaching the court with full disclosure. Explain by way of an affidavit,” Justice Kaurav remarked.

Perusing the pleadings, the Court said that it was nowhere disclosed by Varadarajan that Allahabad High Court had put binding conditions on him while granting him bail and that the same should have been truthfully disclosed.

The Court said that the Supreme Court has said that as a general rule, suppression of material fact by a litigant disqualifies the party from obtaining leave of the Court. It added that the said rule has been evolved to deter litigants from abusing the process of court.

“The petitioner is prima facie guilty of suppressing material fact from court. The senior counsel (for Petitioner) explains the circumstances however this court deems it appropriate to issue notice to the petitioner and to file a proper affidavit to explain the conduct,” the Court said.

Recalling the earlier orders passed in the matter, the Court restored the petitioner to its original number and listed the matter for hearing next later this month.

Title: SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN v. Union of India