HC says doc free to practice religion, restores OCI status
NEWDELHI: Restoring the Overseas Citizen India (OCI) status of a Kerala-born doctor accused of “missionary activities” in India, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday said that “all persons in this country have a right to practice their faith in the manner they consider fit so long as it does not offend any other person”.
Justice Vibhu Bakhru said that “a person has the right to practice his faith and his rendering medical services in furtherance of religion cannot be denied”. It added that the order passed by the Centre was “wholly perverse and militates against the secular values engulfed in the Indian Constitution”. “All persons have a right to practice their faith in the manner they consider fit so long as it does not offend any other person. If the petitioner’s faith motivates the petitioner to volunteer for medical services at a hospital, there is no law that proscribes him from doing so,”
THE CENTRE HAD CLAIMED THAT PHILIPS HAD SUPPRESSED HIS REAL PURPOSE OF VISIT
the court said. The court’s judgment came while hearing the plea of Christo Thomas Philip, a US citizen, born in Kerala who had challenged the Centre’s decision to cancel his OCI card for being involved in “evangelical and subversive activities”. Born in Kerala in 1982, Philip shifted to United States (US) in June 1992 where he completed his studies in medicine and started practising as a doctor. In 2013, he moved back to India with his family and started practising at the Duncan Hospital in Raxaul, Bihar after registering himself with the Medical Council of India (MCI).However, in April 2016, he was detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport by certain officials of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) while returning from Greece who stated that he cannot enter India and would be deported. Philip was then sent to Istanbul, Turkey on the same day where he was again detained on landing. Aggrieved by his detention and the non-allowance to the country, he filed a plea in the high court.
During pendency of this plea, his OCI status was cancelled on August 1, 2017. The Centre, in its order stated that Philips had “suppressed the real purpose of his visit to the country to carry out evangelical, medical missionary and conversion activities ”. On Tuesday, the court while setting aside this order, said that he was unable to understand as to how rendering medical services could be construed as contrary to the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India.The court also said that there was no material available, which could “remotely” suggest that the cancellation of the OCI card was in the interest of the general public and that he was involved in conversion activities in the country.