Mumbai July 18 (FN Bureau) The Bombay High Court on Monday granted relief to a Russian woman while staying the notification of the Central government ordering her to leave India after divorce from her previous husband. The woman was married to an Indian citizen and had an X1 visa with an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status. Later she obtained divorce from the first husband and married another Indian citizen with whom she has a daughter who is presently 6 months old.
The woman surrendered her OCI card and applied for X visa. In response, she was served an exit notice from the Ministry of Home Affairs through local police asking her to leave the country by March 24, 2023 as she lost her OCI status from earlier marriage after divorce. The woman applied for the OCI card in March 2023 and moved the High Court seeking for a stay on the notice. When the Union government counsel justified that the notice was only for temporary separation, a division bench of Justices GS Patel and Neela Gokhale asked the Central government to have a humane approach towards the woman and her child.