A High Court in Accra has ordered the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to restore the Residence and Work Permit of Mr. Ashok Kumar Sivaran, the Indian businessman within seven days.
Granting an order of Mandamus filed by Mr Sivaran against the service, the court further ordered the GIS’s assigns, agents and servants to desist from harassing him until his application before the service was duly processed.
Delivering her ruling on the writ of mandamus, the trial Judge Mrs Justice Naa Addoley Azu, recounted that the right of Mr Sivaran had been curtailed by the GIS, and it was only through a Court’s order that would compel the service to exercise its statutory obligations.
On the issue that Mr Sivaran and his girlfriend one Gifty Abankwa had presented fake marriage certificate, the court noted that the issue was not before it and quizzed why the respondents namely the GIS and the Ministry of the Interior failed to bring those issue up before an earlier court order.
Ms. Jasmine Armah a State Attorney who represented the GIS and Ministry of the Interior earlier in her submissions opposed to the granting of the writ of Mandamus describing same as incompetent and premature that must be dismissed.
According to Ms. Armah; Mr Sivaran had failed to disclose some facts to the GIS when he filed the application for citizenship, adding when he was quizzed over his marital status he admitted that he had two kids but was married to a Ghanaian woman by name Gifty Abankwa.
According her, the wife of Mr Sivaran who is currently based in India, has therefore lodged a complaint against the applicant at the Ghana Police Service Headquarters, adding, in a statement of Gifty Abankwa, she told the Police that she was only the girlfriend of the applicant.
The State Attorney informed the court that the marriage between Ms. Abankwa and the applicant was fake and documents from the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly could attest to that.
The State Attorney said she also had a video to show the court that Mr Sivaran was still married to his Indian wife and their marriage has not been dissolved.
Mr Gary Nimako Marfo, Counsel for the Indian Businessman, noted that GIS would not carry out its statutory duty unless it was compelled by the orders of the court.
Mr Marfo noted that his client was a Director of Jai Mai Telecommunications and he has over 160 people working under him and he had been in country for some years now.
Counsel questioned why Mr Siviran had not been charged over some information he provided over his marital status.
According to him the respondents had made similar submissions before an Accra High Court presided over by Mr Justice Kweku Ackah-Boafo and same had been overruled hence their assertion was baseless and unsubstantiated.
On August 25, this year, the court ordered the GIS to grant Mr Ashok Kumar Sivaram a temporal permit to enable him to fight for his business and other legal matters before the court.
On June 1, this year, the GIS following an order by the Interior Ministry deported Mr Sivaram on the premise that he had forged his marriage certificate in an application for citizenship.
The Indian businessman therefore contested his deportation by filing a judicial review through an order of Certiorari.
Mr Justice Kweku Ackah-Boafo upheld the businessman’s application and quashed his deportation order on July 31, this year on the grounds that the Interior Ministry exceeded its jurisdiction.