Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Jyoti Gupta And Another vs The Union Of India And Others on 1 August, 2024
Author: Shampa Sarkar
Bench: Shampa Sarkar
August 1, 2024
Sl. No.1
Court No.9
s.biswas
WPA 15180 of 2024
Jyoti Gupta and another
vs.
The Union of India and others
Mr. Sankarsan Sarkar
Mr. Aditya Kanodia
Mr. Avik Sengupta
Ms. Shreya Trivedi
... for the petitioners
Mr. Dhiraj Kumar Trivedi, DSG
Mr. Narendra Prasad Gupta
... for the Union of India
Mr. Avishek Guha
Ms. Sonal Agarwal
... for the respondent no.5
1. The question of quashing of the lookout circular will be decided upon exchange of affidavits. Let affidavit-in-opposition be filed within four weeks and reply thereto, if any, be filed within two weeks thereafter. Copies of the said affidavits shall be served amongst the respective respondents by email and also at the immigration counter at the airport. Liberty to mention.
2. The petitioners' travel abroad/foreign countries shall be permitted, upon the petitioners filing an undertaking before this court within the course of the day. A copy of the same shall be supplied to Mr. Narendra Prasad Gupta, learned advocate representing the Union of India, by the end of the day. On an earlier occasion as well, the petitioner had been allowed transit.
3. It appears that a lookout circular had been issued by the Bureau of Immigration at the request of 2 the Bank of Baroda. The petitioner no.1 was a guarantor and director of a company which has been sold upon conclusion of proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The petitioner no.2 was only a guarantor.
4. It appears that the request of LOC was made by the Bank of Baroda on the ground that the transaction auditor had reported that there were various avoidable transactions and such transactions were also undervalued. The account was declared to be fraudulent on March 30, 2021. The Bureau of Immigration had issued the lookout circular on November 17, 2021 with a direction that the originating agency must keep on reviewing the LOC, if the accused was no longer required either by the originating agency or by the competent court. The request to delete the LOC was to be conveyed to the Bureau of Immigration.
5. The bank has not been able to satisfy this court whether such review exercise was undertaken. The bank has not produced any records before this court which would indicate that the petitioner is an accused in a criminal proceeding. There is no input from the intelligence agency that activities of the petitioners have been proved to be detrimental to the bilateral trade relation which India enjoys with other foreign agencies 3 and that the unpaid dues of the bank had affected the economic interest of this country.
6. Mr. Trivedi, learned Deputy Solicitor General, submits that further review of the matter would be required and the writ petition was barred by constructive res judicata. The petitioners did not pursue the prayer for quashing of the lookout circular in the earlier proceedings. Mr. Trivedi has relied on the decision in the matter of Hemanta Kumar Banka vs. Union of India and others reported in 2023 SCC OnLine Cal 2441, in support of his contentions.
7. The court directs that the travel of the petitioners to a foreign location shall not be restricted either by the bank or by the Bureau of Immigration. The petitioners will not be stopped at the airport for all such foreign travels.
8. All the parties are directed to act on the basis of the server copy of the order.
(Shampa Sarkar, J.)