Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday imposed exemplary costs of Rs 30 lakh on Dr Chennamaneni Ramesh, former BRS MLA of Vemulawada, for his attempts to mislead the court by suppressing facts regarding his German citizenship and submitting false documents in a bid to obtain favourable orders to secure Indian citizenship.
Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy refused to reinstate Ramesh’s Indian citizenship and upheld the Union home ministry’s decision in ceasing his Indian citizenship. According to the court orders, Ramesh is not an Indian citizen now.
Justice Vijaysen Reddy dismissed the petition filed by Ramesh in 2019 challenging the order dated November 20, 2019, by the Union home ministry, which had revoked his Indian citizenship.
Of the Rs 30 lakh, the judge ordered Ramesh to pay Rs 25 lakh to Congress Vemulawada MLA Aadi Srinivas, the petitioner who had first moved the court challenging his Indian citizenship and a petitioner before the Union home ministry in the case.
The remaining Rs 5 lakh has to be paid to the Telangana State Legal Service Authority.
The court said out that Dr Ramesh could not furnish a single document from the German embassy stating that he was not a citizen of Germany. The court also considered the arguments of V. Ravi Kiran Rao, counsel for Aadi Srinivas, regarding the Indian Origin Citizen Card held by Ramesh, on which he used to travel abroad, particularly to Germany. The court also took into consideration how many days Ramesh spent as MLA of Vemulawada despite holding a German citizenship.
The court would how an Indian citizen could hold the Oversease Indian Citizenship (OIC) Card.
Dr Ramesh’s contention was that the High Court in 2019, in another petition filed by him, had specifically directed that the competent authority, the Union home ministry, should personally hear his case and that of his opponent and take a decision on citizenship as warranted by law. But, he claimed, a personal hearing was conducted by the secretary of border management, whereas orders were issued by the undersecretary of the Union government, which was a violation of High Court orders.
His other contention was that the High Court in 2019 had directed the Home Ministry to take the decision on Chennamaneni`s citizenship based on the section 10.3 of the Indian Citizenship Act, which clearly mentioned that the Central Government shall not deprive a person of citizenship under this section unless it is satisfied that it is not conducive to the public good that the person should continue to be a citizen of India. But, the Central Government, contrary to the High Court directions , went into the issue of obtaining the citizenship and ceased… this is violation, Chennamaneni`s counsel argued during the hearing.
Meanwhile, Ramesh’s counsel informed that his client would file an appeal before the division bench challenging the latest orders.
Imposes exemplary costs of Rs 30 lakh for suppressing his German citizenship
