Punjab & Haryana High Court Seeks Union's Response On Plea To Make It Mandatory For VISA Consultants To Be Licensed

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has issued notice on a plea seeking directions on the State to make it mandatory for VISA consultants to obtain a license from the concerned foreign Government before being able to ply their trade.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Nidhi Gupta issued notice to the Union Government and states of Punjab and Haryana on a plea filed by Arvind Kumar, who claimed to be an "immigration consultant" approved by the Canadian government.

The plea states that an alarming situation has been created in the country because the unauthorised agents are providing immigration services like study visas, immigration visas and visitor visas without having any licence or authorisation from the concerned foreign Government.

Reference is made to an RTI stating that in response to the aforesaid query, the Ministry of External Affairs has replied that it does not issue any licence to the agents dealing with VISA counselling services.

It was further stated in the said reply that the visa for any foreign country is the sovereign right of that respective country's foreign Government and the entire criterion relating to the issue of licences to agents dealing with visa processing and granting is to be issued by the respective foreign Government.

The petition highlights the scams and frauds which are committed against VISA aspirants by some consultants. Kumar has also submitted that as per information given in the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 2019, over 2,140 criminal cases were registered against travel agents in Punjab during 2017-2019.

Reference was made to the Punjab Travel Professionals Regulation Act 2012, which was enacted to curb fraudulent activities and malpractice of persons involved in organised human trafficking in the Punjab.

It was stated that as per the rules framed under the Act, the District Magistrates and Additional District Magistrates were appointed as the competent authority to issue licencesto travel agents, but no qualifications had been prescribed for enrolment of such travel agents.

In light of the above, the petitioner sought directions on the States of Punjab and Haryana, as well as the Union, to make it mandatory for VISA consultants to obtain a license from the respective foreign government authorities.

Additionally, the petitioner also sought directions to publish a list of authorised VISA consultants to prevent frauds and scams.

The matter is now listed on December 12, for further consideration.

Case Title: Arvind Kumar v. State of Punjab & Ors.

Advocate H.C. Arora appeared for the petitioner.

Sr. DAG Navdeep Chabbra appeared for Punjab