US citizen and a journalist working with the Vice News, Angad Singh has approached the Delhi High Court against the Centre’s refusal to permit his entry to India. Singh was deported from Delhi to New York in August.

Justice Prathiba M Singh today issued notice on Singh’s plea and sought response of the Centre and other authorities within a period of four weeks.

Soon after he landed in Delhi on August 24, Singh was sent back to New York. Singh’s mother in a Facebook post had said that he had come to India to attend a family reunion, but was deported hours after landing in the national capital. She said the authorities didn’t give a reason for his deportation.

“But we know it is his award-winning journalism that scares them. It is the stories he did and the stories he is capable of. It is the love for his motherland that they can’t stand,” his mother had said.

Singh’s recent documentaries on the Shaheen Bagh protest and second wave of COVID-19 in India have received Emmy nominations.

In his plea, Singh has challenged the action of refusing him entry in India in August as illegal and violative of Articles 14, 21 and 25 of the Constitution of India. He has also challenged the refusal to grant him a Special Permit “further to his application made on 22 September 2021”.

Singh has also sought to restrain the Centre and other authorities from denying or restricting his entry in the country in accordance with rights provided under Section 7B of the Citizenship Act, 1955. The provision pertains to OCI Card Holders.

He has also sought disclosure of the materials, records and data relating to him held or maintained by the Centre.

The matter will now be heard on January 27, 2023.