Pravasi Legal Cell

All the Non Emigration Check Required (Non-ECR) passport holding Indian emigrants travelling to the 18 ECR Countries with effect from 1st January 2019 on ‘Employment Visa’ notified as per circular No. Z-11025/12/2017-OE-III issued by the Ministry of External Affairs are advised to register online at least 24 hours prior to the journey and the registration can be done by visiting the website of “emigrate.gov.in”.  for more information please contact on toll free number 1800 11 3090 or 01140503090 or by email to helpline@mea.gov.in

A nurse working in a private Delhi hospital gets relief after she approached the Labour Commissioner through Pravasi Legal Cell complaining about violation of human rights and labour rights. Ms. Bonny Sunny was employed as a nurse in a private h ospital in Delhi for more than a year. Last month she fell down at the hostel managed by the hospital while moving out for duty and sustained injuries. She was admitted in the same hospital and was advised to have bed rest for about three months by the doctors. But when she applied for leave the authorities at the hospital were not willing to accept the application or grant her leave. Instead, she was forced repeatedly to wait for long hours with the application for leave. Eventually, she sent a legal notice to the hospital, but without any favorable result. Finally, she filed a complaint with the Labour Commissioner through Pravasi Legal Cell pointing out the violation of Human rights and Labour laws. The complaint state...

The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the Union government and Air India on the airline’s illegal and arbitrary practice of weighing dead bodies of Indian emigrants and charging them accordingly for transportation. The notice is issued by a bench consisting of the Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V. K. Rao on a Public Interest Litigation filed by a Delhi based NGO, Pravasi Legal Cell. The petition filed through Advocate Jose Abraham, prayed  that the Civil aviation Ministry and the National Carrier be directed to form proper guidelines to regulate domestic transportation and international repatriation of mortal remains. Due to lack of proper guidelines or policies, the Airlines are charging exorbitant rates for transporting mortal remains and the rates keep fluctuating, placing the indigent overseas migrants in a very disadvantageous position. Currently, the airlines including the national carrier treat human remains as cargo and charge for their shippin...

The illegal and arbitrary practice of weighing mortal remains and charging for its transportation accordingly by airlines has been challenged through a Public Interest Litigation before the Delhi High Court. Pravasi Legal Cell, a Delhi based NGO, has filed the PIL seeking guidelines to regulate the practice of carrying dead bodies of Indians dying abroad. Currently, the airlines including Air India treat human remains as cargo and charge the shipping of the same accordingly. Apart from accusing airlines of violating human dignity through this practice, there is also allegation about the exorbitant rates that AI charges for repatriation of mortal remains. Recently Air India was in news regarding its cancellation of the 50% discount that was applicable on transportation of mortal remains from UAE to India. With this, the charges increased to about eighty thousand rupees for carrying a dead body back to India from the UAE, which is unbearable to most of the low-paid India...

                                           Congratulations and Best wishes to Mr. Melwyn Williams !

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.