In a writ petition filed before the Delhi High Court by Siddharth Varadarajan, Founding Editor, The Wire, a Single Judge Bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav recalled all previous orders passed in this writ petition whereby a Central government communication rejecting Varadarajan’s request for an Overseas Citizen of India card was quashed and called for an affidavit from him explaining his conduct.
The Union informed the Court of an order dated 15-05-2020 by the Allahabad High Court in
Varadarajan’s bail application, whereby he was directed not to leave India without prior permission of the Court along with various other directions. The chargesheet filed against the petitioner was also brought to the Court’s notice.
After perusing the entire pleadings, the Court stated that the binding directions of the Allahabad High Court were nowhere disclosed. The Court stated that in S.J.S. Business Enterprises (P) Ltd. v. State of Bihar AIR 2004 SC 2421, the Supreme Court held that suppression of a material fact by a litigant, disqualifies such litigant from obtaining any relief.
The Court stated that the petitioner, who through this writ petition, sought exercise of this Constitutional Court’s discretionary and equitable jurisdiction, was guilty of suppressing material facts. The Court directed the petitioner to file an affidavit for explaining his conduct within 7 days.
Lastly, the Court recalled all orders previously passed in this writ petition, and restored the petition to its original number.
The matter is now listed on 25-05-2026.
Appearances:
For Petitioner – Ms. Nitya Ramakrishna (Sr. Adv), Mr. Archit Krishna, Mr. Indronil Choudhry, Mr. Ashutosh Shukla
For Respondents – Mr. Chetan Sharma (ASG), Mr. Nishant Gautam (CGSC), Mr. Ashish Dixit (CGSC), Mr. Vineet Negi, Ms. Kavya Shukla, Mr. Vibhav V. Nath, Mr. Amit Gupta, Mr. Shubham Sharma, Mr. Yashwardhan Sharma, Mr. Naman, Mr. Akash Gupta (GP)
