Pravasi Legal Cell

Pravasi Legal Cell has been receiving numerous complaints from people cheated by online job scammers. Recently we were approached by a young woman who was duped. She came across a highly attractive nursing job advertisement in the United Kingdom on the popular job portal N aukri. com and applied for the same, sending to the employer filled in forms and other documents.  She, on being “selected”, was asked to make a refundable deposit amounting to about 70000/-. Later, more money was demanded on different pretexts. Sensing danger, she declined any further payment and was informed that the application has been rejected as she could not make complete payment within the stipulated time. Her attempts to get the amount refunded or contact the “employers” failed. She approached Pravasi legal cell and with basic research we were able to know about the fraudsters. Since the payment was made into an Indian bank account we have initiated legal action to help her get the money ba...

An Indian Nurse troubled in Qatar due to the negligence of the HR officials of a private hospital in Delhi, gets relief after the intervention of Pravasi Legal Cell. Sunu Skaria was a former nurse of Max Super Speciality Hospital, Delhi. He later joined a new firm in Qatar and, along with other documents, submitted there an experience certificate issued by the Delhi Hospital as well. His troubles began when Dataflow, an international verification agency, contacted the hospital for verifying the genunity of his work experience certificate and the hospital officials erroneously reported that it was not issued by them. On receiving this report from the previous employer, the new office issued Sunu with a show cause notice. He immediately contacted the hospital management with proper documents, but the hospital refused to entertain his plea and to rectify the error. Forging of documents for employment is considered a serious crime and this can be a reason for lose of em...

The Delhi High Court has issued notices to Delhi University and the Government of India on a petition filed by the students of Delhi University pointing out the University’s arbitrary and irrational selection criteria for the undergraduate courses. The calculation of “best of four” marks based on which admission to various courses is done is restricted only to those subjects mentioned in the common prospectus of the University. Unfortunately, the list includes only Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali  and  Punjabi and excludes all the other Indian languages mentioned in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India. If any subject other than those mentioned in the said list is included in the calculation of “Best four marks” there is a deduction of 2.5 % in the aggregate score. This causes much discomfiture for those students who chose their regional language for the board exams as elective subjects and have scored high in the same. The illogical and arbitrary ex...

Pravasi Legal Cell has taken up the issue of arbitrary and irrational admission policy followed by the University of Delhi to its various Arts and Humanities undergraduate programmes. As per the prevailing admission policy of the University, the calculation of “best four” marks based on which admissions are done to various Arts and Humanities courses are restricted only to those subjects mentioned in the common prospectus of the University. Unfortunately, the list includes only Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, and Punjabi and excludes all the other Indian languages mentioned in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India. If any subject other than those mentioned in the said list is included in the calculation of “Best four marks” there is a deduction of 2.5 % in the aggregate score. This causes much discomfiture for those students who have opted their regional language for the board exams as elective subjects and have scored highly in the same. The illogical and arbitrary exc...

Pravasi legal cell has submitted a memorandum to Smt. Sushma Swaraj, the Honourable External Affairs Minister, seeking her intervention in framing guidelines for free repatriation of mortal remains of Indians dying abroad. Presently, bringing mortal remains back to India is a costly affair, unbearable for most of the Indian emigrants. It is mainly for the airlines unmindfully charging exorbitant fees. It is inhuman and unethical to weigh and charge fee for each kilogram of the dead body. It amounts to the violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which guarantees decent and dignified treatment even to a dead body. A few countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, have provisions to carry the mortal remains of their citizens back to the country free of cost. Pravasi Legal Cell has petitioned the Ministry of External Affairs to take considerate view of this practice and simulate it in the best interest of the Indian citizens abroad. Pravasi Legal Cell has also...

Dr. Raphel Vallachira was elected as the National Coordinator of Pravasi Legal Cell in its Governing Body meeting held on July 26, 2018. He has a Ph.D in International Business and currently working as Director of Paideia Institute of Training and Research in Social Sciences, New Delhi. Congratulations and Best Wishes to Dr. Raphel Vallachira.

An Indian nurse is in trouble in Qatar due to the negligence of officials of a major private hospital in Delhi. Mr. Sunu Skaria, who recently got a new job in Qatar was a former employee of Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket from 2008 to 2012. While joining the new office, he submitted the experience certificate that was issued to him by the Hospital along with all other documents. Sunu’s troubles began when Dataflow, an international verification agency, contacted the hospital for verification of his work experience and the hospital officials erroneously reported that it was not genuine. On receiving show cause notice from the new office, Sunu contacted the hospital officials in Delhi with proofs of his working in the hospital previously. But the hospital refused to entertain the plea and rectify their error. Forging of documents for employment purposes is considered a serious crime all over the world. This can result in lose of employment, imprisonment, and being ...

Pravasi Legal Cell organized a Niyamavedi on RTI Act 2005 at Kerala Club, Cannaught place, Delhi on 19th January.  Justice C S Rajan, Patron of Pravasi Legal Cell, Advocates Abraham Pattiyani, Wills Mathew, and President of the Pravasi Legal Cell, Adv Jose Abraham were in the Panel.  A booklet on Right To Information Act was released during the function.  K Padmanabhan Memorial National award  for emerging RTI Activists for the year 2017 was presented to Mr Dominic Simon.

Pravasi Legal Cell has approached the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi in a matter related to the bond system of nurses being practiced by the private hospitals in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Earlier a prominent Delhi hospital had pressed a dishonoured cheque case against a male nursing staff who had resigned from the job. The signed cheque, along with a work bond for two years, was taken from the employee while joining the job. Due to work pressure and mental harassment, the staff decided to resign even before the two year period was complete. On his resignation, the hospital management submitted the cheque for encashment in the bank. On the cheque getting dishonoured, the hospital approached a lower court for relief. Pravasi Legal has taken this issue to the notice of the Delhi High Court since it is a violation of the employee's rights. The injustice and illegality of the case have been pointed out in the petition. Pravasi Legal Cell, in 2011, had appr...

The Judicial Magistrate Court, Gurgaon has issued summon notice to M/s Job Mantra Recruiters in Delhi on a case filed by Mr.  Boby Thomas on the matter of cheating.  Mr. Thomas, a nurse working in Delhi, had registered with the recruitment agency, seeking job opportunities in Singapore, after verifying various recruitment schemes of the agency, and made an initial payment of rupees twenty thousand. On realizing that no progress has been made in the matter for long and after getting repeated excuses, Mr. Thomas applied for a refund of the registration fee. After repeated visits and follow-ups with the agency, a cheque was issued for the amount. But on presenting to the bank for encashment, the cheque got dishonoured. Since the agency did not respond to a legal notice sent in this regard, Mr. Thomas was forced to file a criminal case. The court has now issued summons notice to the agency and the case is listed for hearing on 4th January. Cheating and harassmen...

Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Government of NCT of Delhi has granted relief to a Keralite retired government employee in a case of deficiency of service against the New Kerala Roadways, a home packing service provider. The complainant who is a retired central government employee had paid the service providers to transfer his household items from Delhi to Palakkad in Kerala. On delivery, it was found that a packet containing costly items was missing and many of the items, including a 21 inch TV which was broken in the middle, were damaged beyond repair. The consumer, though had made additional payments for insurance, did not receive any compensation from the service provider in this regard. The complainant then approached the Consumer Forum through Pravasi Legal Cell and the Forum held the packers and movers company guilty of deficiency in services and ordered it to make a compensation payment of Rs. 50,000/- to the complainant for the material damage and the mental...

The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre to assist two women who lost their family members in separate accidents in Saudi Arabia, in ascertaining and obtaining appropriate monetary relief in that country. The order came on two petitions filed by Stily George, who lost her husband George Antony in a tyre blast incident in 2014, and Dharohara Devi, whose son Dhirendra Kumar Singh died in another accident in Saudi Arabia. The petitioners have not received any compensation for the demise of their relatives, the pleas filed through advocate Jose Abraham said. "However, as far as their quest for assistance to obtain compensation/employment benefits of their deceased relatives is concerned, this Court is of the view that the respondent (government) should extend all possible assistance through diplomatic channels or otherwise to ascertain as to whether they are entitled to any relief and, if so, further assist them to secure the same," observed the Delhi HC. This would im...

Pravasi Legal cell has invited applications for the K.Padmanabhan Memorial National Award for the RTI activists. The award is instituted in the memory of K.Padmanabhan, an RTI activist and the first Vice President of Pravasi Legal Cell. The award is constituted to encourage and appreciate emerging RTI activists of the country. The award will be given to activists who have been working to make social changes using the Right to Information Act. The application will be scrutinized by an expert committee and the award will be given away in the month of October 2017. Further details and the application form can be downloaded from the Pravasi legal cell website www.pravasilegalcell.org/ . The last date for receiving the applications is 30th September 2017.

The Tamil Nadu Chapter of Pravasi Legal Cell was inaugurated on 27th August 2017. The inauguration of the chapter was done by Adv. Jose Abraham, the President of Pravasi Legal Cell.  This chapter will be headed by Adv. Martin Kennedy and will coordinate the functioning of Pravasi Legal Cell in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Pravasi Legal Cell filed a PIL in the High Court of Delhi challenging Air India’s decision to enforce a rule that mandates 48-hour prior notice to the airport health officer about the arrival of dead bodies or ashes.  The 63-year-old rule, when implemented can cause much trouble to the families of the dead. It was further claimed that if this rule subsists then it would be a denial of rights to both the deceased and his family as it is unnecessarily delaying the repatriation of the dead body by another 48 hours. This issue was taken up by the Pravasi Legal Cell as the existing rule of the aircraft creates hardships to the NRI’s and to their families in India as the right to proper and dignified burial is vitiated since the burial gets delayed. The Division Bench of Hon’ble acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Hon’ble Mr. Justice C. Hari Shankar of The High Court of Delhi heard the matter and vide order dated 31 st July 2017 issued notice to the Ministries of Healt...

The office bearers of Pravasi legal cell met Ms. Swati Maliwal, Chairperson, Delhi Commission for Women, Government of Delhi and submitted a representation covering issues regarding marriages of Indians overseas. Pravasi Legal Cell has been receiving requests for help from persons affected with issues rising from marriages overseas. As the government sought views and suggestions from the public, the public on problems related to marriages abroad, Pravasi Legal Cell in it meeting held on 16th July decided to make a representation to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India and the Delhi Government's Department of Women & Child Development. On 27th July 2017, the President and Vice-President along with a Member of Pravasi Legal Cell met Ms. Maliwal and submitted a representation. It was well received and the Society was asked to make a detailed presentation on the same at a later stage.

The Pravasi Legal Cell had filed a writ petitions before the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi on behalf of Noushaba Bano whose husband died in Saudi Arabia in March 2015. Naushaba Bano had received information from co-workers of her husband that he was brutally murdered by his sponsor in Saudi Arabia on requesting vacation for visiting home in India. The sponsor allegedly video graphed the murder and showed it to other workers threatening them with same fate on wanting to go back to India. Medical records from Saudi Arabia showed hanging as the cause of death. That despite completion of more than nine months from the date of death, the mortal remains of the deceased had not been repatriated, the widow approached Delhi High Court and the Court directed Union of India to bring back the mortal remains within a month. Even after waiting for 3 months from the date of the said order, the dead body was not brought back, and then she filed a contempt petition before the Delhi High Court,...