Bad luck if you are a NRI visitng your Indian family :(

[echarcha]

Here is an interesting and at the same time enraging news item.

As per some old law written in 1946, if you are a NRI or a foreign passport holder and visit some relatives in India, then the relatives are supposed to inform the local police station. Else your relatives could land up in jail!

Read on about this stupiduty!
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NEW DELHI: If your NRI relatives are foreign citizens and you fail to inform the police about their presence when they stay at your house, you could well be imprisoned for five years. So could businessmen who meet with foreign counterparts on their own premises without reporting the matter to the local thana.

Even as India prides itself on being an open, liberal and democratic society, an anachronistic law is being revived which will turn tens of thousands of citizens into criminals for allowing foreigners into their homes and offices without informing the authorities.

On Thursday, the ministry of home affairs (foreigners division) ran a small advertisement in some local dailies with the ominous title, `Intimation Regarding Presence of Foreigners'. It read: ``This is for the information of General Public that as per the Foreigners (Report to Police) Order, 1971, made under the Foreigners Act, 1946, every householder or other person shall report to the officer-in-charge of the nearest police station the arrival or presence in his household or in any premises occupied by him or under his control of any foreigner, if he knows or has reasons to believe that he is a foreigner. Non-compliance of this order would attract punitive action under the Foreigners Act, 1946, i.e. imprisonment up to a period of five years or with fine or both''.

This 1971 order is being ``reiterated in order to inform people that its enforcement will be more stringent with a view to curbing overstaying and illegal immigration'', home ministry spokesman PD Shenoy told The Times of India. ``We have to be able to act against visitors from certain countries inimical to our national interests'', he added.

However, neither Shenoy nor Pravin Srivastava, joint secretary in the MHA's foreigners division, was able to explain why such a catch-all order was necessary when under existing rules, visitors from specific countries - such as Pakistan and Bangladesh - must report to local police stations. When TOI faxed Srivastava pointing out that the 1971 order criminalises familial and professional relationships between Indians and foreigners and doesn't even specify how long a foreigner must stay at a given location before the police must be informed, the MHA scrambled to cover its flanks. Shenoy later offered the following clarification: ``Casual visits by foreigners to someone's home or office need not be reported. A cup of tea, meals, business meeting, even a day-long visit is fine. But if an overnight stay is involved, the police must be told'', he said.

Shenoy said the MHA would issue a press note clarifying the order. When asked, he said the formal 1971 order would also be suitably modified.

However, these modifications will not take the sting out of an order that is illiberal and easy to abuse. An NRI with a foreign passport who stays in the homes of several relatives would run the risk of sending them to jail if the police were not informed each night. The Indian friends of an American professor would now have to think twice if their guest wants to stay the night after a late dinner. ``All in all'', said G Parthasarathy, former Indian ambassador to Pakistan, ``this order is an absurd and unwarranted intrusion into the privacy of Indian citizens''.

http://www.timesofindia.com/today/25home3.htm

[Big-G]

Abey yeh kya news hai bhai???

Police sey bachney key liye to Phoren bhaag key aayaa hoon...abhi ghar waalon sey milney jaoonga, toh daddy ko kya police tayshan jaakey bolna padega ki, "Bobby Batli vaapas aa gaya hai" ????

[Big-G]

On a serious note...."Does this include just the CITIZENS or GC holders too?"

[echarcha]

Please read the whoel news item.

Many of us come to USA... thenget a green card and after 5 years even apply and get US citizenship. So do many Indians in other countries get citizenship of those countries... NOw tell me if you go back and the cops want to harass you, then can!

Looks like this is a new way for the cops and the foreign ministry to rake in more cash!

[laal_langot]

Yaar pehle to definitions clarify karr lein......NRI = non resident Indian....somebody who has a foreign passport is not an Indian citizen and what about those who are technically speaking NRI's i.e. Indians residing abroad??

[Super Girl]

This couldn't be true...

This means if we visit my parents there, it would mean trouble for them.....

I really find this hard to believe....

I do know this though, it you a citizen and stay back in India for six months or more, you are supposed to present an income tax clearance if you want to return back...

[supada]

so i am gonna have hard time when i will visit India with my US born Daughter( US Passport)...

Informing local thana means pay atleat 500 Bucks....

[echarcha]

I have just reported what I read from a news item.. Now whether this law applies to GC holders or H1 visa holders or to American citizens of Indian origin.... I dont know..

But the news items states which law it is and what it states.. so try finding out more about this law from someone back home.

[Big-G]

Originally posted by laal_langot
Yaar pehle to definitions clarify karr lein......NRI = non resident Indian....somebody who has a foreign passport is not an Indian citizen and what about those who are technically speaking NRI's i.e. Indians residing abroad??

Exactly my point....once the person becomes a citizen of another country, they are no longer an NRI.
That;s why i asked, "On a serious note...."Does this include just the CITIZENS or GC holders too?"

[laal_langot]

Yaar back home harr aadmi apna lawyer hai.....baaki kisi se khunnas nikaalni ho like say the girl who rejected you when you asked her out...uske ghar chale jao....paas ke phone box se pandu ko phone maarne ka....buss phir wahaan se kalti pakad lene ka..

But I think the law can only apply to foreign nationals because the report talks about Pakis and Bangla babus.....so must be to do with Indians of foreign citizenship....

[aryaputra]

ahhh...this is bullshit law enacted to prevent espionage which was very hot during WW-II and later between USA and USSR.

Should have been scrapped by now - alongwith the law that made you apply for a license just to own a AM Radio or for that matter the law that prohibited cordless phones.