CHENNAI: Five months after Green Peace activist Priya Parameshwaran Pillai was offloaded from a London-bound flight, and three months after the Delhi high court chided the Centre for disallowing the campaigner to travel abroad, the Madras high court recalled the incident and extended similar legal remedy to a woman professor in Chennai.
Justice D Hariparanthaman, who had already stayed the disciplinary proceedings against assistant professor of Stella Mary's College, Ordetta Hanna Mendoza, granted deemed permission for her to travel to the US saying, "The crux of the impugned order is that since she is facing departmental proceedings, she cannot travel abroad. As stated earlier, even a criminal has a right to go abroad and, as such, a professor cannot be prevented from travelling abroad citing pending departmental proceedings as a reason, that too during summer vacation."
Mendoza, an associate professor of Botany in the college, was issued a charge memo for being 'strict' with students during a practical examination. When she submitted a request asking the college to forward her application for permission to travel abroad, the college did not oblige. When she gave a reminder, the application was rejected on the ground that since she was facing an inquiry she could not be allowed to travel abroad.
In the last week of April, Justice Hariparanthaman granted her an interim relief asking the college to forward the application to the director of collegiate education for appropriate orders. Later, the college moved the court to vacate the interim orders, saying it was the college and not the director which is the competent authority to grant permission. Noting that she was required to be in college for administrative work related to admission of students, college counsel Gordon Swaminath said she had not sought permission from the college to go abroad and that she had only wanted the college to forward her request. "The college is not a forwarding authority and the director has no authority to give permission to travel abroad," he said.
Rejecting the submissions, Justice Hariparanthaman referred to Maneka Gandhi's case of 1978 vintage, wherein she was asked to surrender her passport without being given any reasons nor being given any opportunity to explain. A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court quashed the order saying freedom to travel is part of his personal liberty, that the refusal of a passport amounts to a deprivation of that liberty.
In Pillai's case in March this year, the Delhi high court said the right to travel abroad is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, and the right to expression includes the right to travel abroad to express unpopular opinion.
Madras high court, in E V Perumal Samy Reddy case, said right to travel is a fundamental right available even to a person involved in a criminal case. Merely because a person is involved in a criminal case, he is not denuded of his fundamental rights. It is the fundamental of a person to move anywhere he likes, including foreign countries, it said.
Citing all these, besides the fact that she wanted to visit the US for medical treatment, Justice Hariparanthaman said Mendoza stood on a better footing, as "she is not a criminal. She is a professor rendering service in the college for the past 30 years." Quashing the March 30 order of the college, the judge then gave her 'deemed permission' to travel abroad.
Justice D Hariparanthaman, who had already stayed the disciplinary proceedings against assistant professor of Stella Mary's College, Ordetta Hanna Mendoza, granted deemed permission for her to travel to the US saying, "The crux of the impugned order is that since she is facing departmental proceedings, she cannot travel abroad. As stated earlier, even a criminal has a right to go abroad and, as such, a professor cannot be prevented from travelling abroad citing pending departmental proceedings as a reason, that too during summer vacation."
Mendoza, an associate professor of Botany in the college, was issued a charge memo for being 'strict' with students during a practical examination. When she submitted a request asking the college to forward her application for permission to travel abroad, the college did not oblige. When she gave a reminder, the application was rejected on the ground that since she was facing an inquiry she could not be allowed to travel abroad.
In the last week of April, Justice Hariparanthaman granted her an interim relief asking the college to forward the application to the director of collegiate education for appropriate orders. Later, the college moved the court to vacate the interim orders, saying it was the college and not the director which is the competent authority to grant permission. Noting that she was required to be in college for administrative work related to admission of students, college counsel Gordon Swaminath said she had not sought permission from the college to go abroad and that she had only wanted the college to forward her request. "The college is not a forwarding authority and the director has no authority to give permission to travel abroad," he said.
Rejecting the submissions, Justice Hariparanthaman referred to Maneka Gandhi's case of 1978 vintage, wherein she was asked to surrender her passport without being given any reasons nor being given any opportunity to explain. A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court quashed the order saying freedom to travel is part of his personal liberty, that the refusal of a passport amounts to a deprivation of that liberty.
In Pillai's case in March this year, the Delhi high court said the right to travel abroad is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, and the right to expression includes the right to travel abroad to express unpopular opinion.
Madras high court, in E V Perumal Samy Reddy case, said right to travel is a fundamental right available even to a person involved in a criminal case. Merely because a person is involved in a criminal case, he is not denuded of his fundamental rights. It is the fundamental of a person to move anywhere he likes, including foreign countries, it said.
Citing all these, besides the fact that she wanted to visit the US for medical treatment, Justice Hariparanthaman said Mendoza stood on a better footing, as "she is not a criminal. She is a professor rendering service in the college for the past 30 years." Quashing the March 30 order of the college, the judge then gave her 'deemed permission' to travel abroad.
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