Ignorance Of Law Is No Excuse, Kerala HC Tells German Citizen Who Believed He Became Indian Citizen By Naturalization [Read Order]

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15 Aug 2020 6:05 PM IST

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Ignorance Of Law Is No Excuse, Kerala HC Tells German Citizen Who Believed He Became Indian Citizen By Naturalization [Read Order]

Ignorance of Law is no excuse, the Kerala High Court told a man who said that he believed that he has acquired Indian Citizenship through naturalization Roland Moesle had approached the High Court seeking Anticipatory Bail after a crime was registered against him under Sections 12(1)(c) of the Passports Act and Section 3 r/w Section 14(a), (c) of the Foreigners Act. Before the Court, he...

Ignorance of Law is no excuse, the Kerala High Court told a man who said that he believed that he has acquired Indian Citizenship through naturalization

Roland Moesle had approached the High Court seeking Anticipatory Bail after a crime was registered against him under Sections 12(1)(c) of the Passports Act and Section 3 r/w Section 14(a), (c) of the Foreigners Act. Before the Court, he submitted that he was a German Citizen and entered India with a valid German Passport valid till 2011. Later he started a Company and obtained PAN in the name of the Company and himself. He submitted that PAN card and Aadhaar were very liberally granted to him without any questions being asked about his citizenship and thus he believed that Citizenship through naturalization was granted to him.

Addressing these submissions, Justice Ashok Menon said:

Ignorance of the law is no excuse.. He should have consulted knowledgeable persons to find out the manner in which he could acquire the Citizenship of India. Hence, his act of continuing his residence in India is definitely a violation of the provisions stated above.

The Court, however, noted that the maximum punishment prescribed for the violation is less than seven years and therefore the benefit of the Full Bench decision would come to his aid. Since there is no possibility of the accused absconding, the bench said it is inclined to grant anticipatory bail with stringent conditions.

Directing the accused to surrender before the investigating officer within two weeks, the court said that, in the event of his being arrested, he shall be released on bail on the execution of bond for Rs.1,00,000 with two solvent sureties, each for the like amount, preferably from Lakshadweep, to the satisfaction of the investigating officer. Other usual bail conditions have also been imposed.

Case name: ROLAND MOESLE vs. UNION TERRITORY OF LAKSHADWEEP
Case no.: Bail Appl..No.4708 OF 2020
Coram: Justice Ashok Menon
Counsel: Adv M.R.SARIN and SCGC MANU.S

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Ignorance Of Law Is No Excuse, Kerala HC Tells German Citizen Who Believed He Became Indian Citizen By Naturalization [Read Order]

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