The Court was hearing a petition filed by a 47-year-old Pakistani national and his Indian wife.
The petitioner had come to India on a valid visa in 2001. He got married to an Indian lady and started living with her in a village in Hooghly district.
He was, however, convicted in 2019 for overstaying in India and sentenced to three years in jail.
While convicting him for overstaying his visa, the court had also ordered his deportation back to Pakistan.
He was lodged in Tihar jail. His jail term ended in 2022.
However, the Central government said that he had remained lodged in a correctional cell in West Bengal even after his prison sentence was over since the Pakistani embassy refused to recognise his Pakistani citizenship.
He, therefore, moved a plea before the High Court for relief. He submitted that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with his wife and kids instead of dying in jail.
Source: Barandbench
