SC issues NBW against man facing contempt case who flees to US ‘without passport’
The Supreme Court has issued a non-bailable warrant of arrest against a man facing a contempt of court case in connection with a battle for custody of his 10-year-old son with his wife after he fled to the US even as his passport remained deposited in the court.
"We are amazed as to how can the alleged contemnor/respondent leave for the US or for that matter for any country without a passport, as his passport is in the custody of this court. Be that as it may, now today we have no option but to issue a non-bailable warrant against the alleged contemnor," a Bench led by Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia ordered on Tuesday.
The Bench – which also included Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra -- directed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to take every possible step under the law to arrest the man and bring him to justice.
The Bench requested Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj to assist it and find out with the help of the MHA how the man was permitted to leave India without a passport and without its permission.
Asking the ASG to inform it who assisted the alleged contemnor in escaping and who were the officials and other persons involved in it, the Bench posted the matter for February 19.
Any business transaction, including any deal relating to his property in India, during the contempt proceedings or later would be subject to its orders, the Bench said.
“He (the man) was a Green Card holder and his second wife is a US citizen…his son is also a US citizen. His second wife applied to the US Government saying he is stranded because the Indian Supreme Court has kept his passport and on her (second wife’s) request they have issued a US passport to him on the basis of which he flew. It’s not as if he has gone clandestinely or without proper documents,” senior advocate Vikas Singh, who represented the man, told The Tribune.
“His autistic child in the US was unwell while he was stranded in India and, therefore, his second wife got the necessary travel documents issued to him from the US authorities to enable him to travel back,” Singh said.
As senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing the man, informed the Bench that he had left for a foreign country, the judges were shocked. “How can he leave without a passport?” Justice Dhulia wondered.
Married on February 8, 2006, the couple had moved to the US and had a child. However, the man obtained a decree of divorce on September 12, 2017 from a Michigan court in the US following a matrimonial dispute.
The wife initiated multiple proceedings against her husband in India and settlement was reached between the parties before the Supreme Court on October 21, 2019 in which the man agreed to hand over the child's custody to his ex-wife. Contempt proceedings were initiated against him at the behest of the woman after he failed to give the child to his ex-wife.
In September and November 2022, the top court asked the man to appear before it and he virtually appeared on December 13, 2022. On January 17, 2024, he was ordered to remain present in all the proceedings but he did not appear during hearings on January 22 and 29.