AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Thursday quashed an externment order passed by Ahmedabad police against a social activist, Kaleem Siddiqui, and observed that a citizen cannot be subjected to externment for raising a grievance against the government.
Siddiqui was one of the organizers of a protest at Ajit Mill Compound against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens. The protest lasted three months until the movement was wound up on the streets due to the Covid-19 pandemic. City police had in 2019 lodged an FIR against an unknown crowd for staging a protest against CAA/NRC. Siddiqui’s name was not even in the FIR.
While quashing the externment order, Justice Paresh Upadhyay noted, “A citizen cannot be subjected to externment for raising his grievance against the government. On this count also, the externment order needs to be set aside.” Siddiqui was issued a notice for externment in July 2020 and in November last year, the ACP ‘A’ division, Ahmedabad City, passed a final order prohibiting Siddiqui’s entry into Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Kheda and Gandhinagar districts. The HC had stayed the order.
Siddiqui was externed on the basis of four FIRs lodged against him, but the externment notice mentioned only two FIRs. One FIR was filed in 2018, in which he has been acquitted. The second FIR mentioned in the order was for protesting against the CAA/NRC. For not mentioning the two other FIRs, the police told the HC that it was a typographical mistake in the order. The HC said the externment order was liable to be quashed only on this ground alone.
