Karnataka HC asks US medico to pay NRI quota MBBS fees to leave India
A 26-year-old US citizen who came to India as a six-year-old and did not renounce her US citizenship as an adult has been asked by the court to pay NRI quota MBBS fees if she wants to leave India to pursue higher education. The Centre and Bureau of Immigration have been directed by the court to issue an exit permit only if she pays the fee.
A single judge of Karnataka High Court has directed the Centre and Bureau of Immigration to issue an exit permit to a 26-year-old US citizen who came to India as a six-year-old and did not renounce her US citizenship as an adult only if she pays the NRI category MBBS fees for the medical course she pursued in India.
“pay all the fees, for all the five years of the MBBS course at the rate of the fee that would be charged to NRI/overseas citizens of India treating the petitioner’s admission to be in that category,” said Justice M Nagaprasanna, as reported by Indian Express
“Therefore, the exit permit is directed to be issued subject to the aforesaid condition, all, again, owing to peculiar facts of the case and the conduct of the petitioner misrepresenting herself to be an Indian, snatching away the career of an Indian,” the high court said in its order, as reported by Indian Express.
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The woman was born in the US in 1997 and travelled to India on a tourist visa in 2003 as a six-year-old. She pursued her studies in India as an Indian citizen and did not renounce her US citizenship within six months of becoming an adult in 2015. She obtained a new US passport in 2021 and sought an exit permit from the BoI to pursue higher studies in the US. When BoI rejected the exit permit she approached the court.
The high court pointed out that since the young woman was born outside India, she “cannot be conferred citizenship by descent as she has not renounced the citizenship of the USA within six months as mandated under the statute”.
“In no manner under the Act, the petitioner can claim to be a citizen of this country either by descent or domicile as she comes into the country on a tourist visa, therefore, the stay of the petitioner on the face of it is unauthorised,” the court said.
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