The Ghana Immigration Service has defied a court order directing it to issue the Indian businessman, Ashok Kumar Sivaram, who is fighting an illegal deportation suit, a temporary residence/work permit.
According to the Immigration Service, lawyers for the Service told the court there was nothing like a temporary visa hence their failure to issue it.
[contextly_sidebar id=”lOsdr6xJpGmKVrc3xaHio8cRNRezfeHG”]They also told the court that they had issued the businessman a passport retention slip, which gives him a legal stay in the country while they deal with his application for a permanent visa.
Responding to the revelation by the Immigration service, lawyer for the applicant, Gary Nimako, described as misleading the comments that his client applied for a permanent visa.
According to him, officials of the Immigration Service who attended to his client, directed him to pay an amount of five hundred dollars for a temporary visa.
The presiding judge, Naa Adoley Azu, after hearing the submissions of both parties, condemned the action of the Immigration service, and warned the representative of the Attorney General, Jasmine Armah, to stop laughing at the turn events and apologize for her actions.
She further warned officers of state to stop using the power available to them arbitrarily.
Application for mandamus
In his application, which named Mr. Takyi and Mr. Dery as respondents, the businessman is praying for the restoration of his residence and work permit, which was cancelled by the GIS following his deportation on June 1, 2017, on the basis that his deportation was quashed by the High Court on July 31, 2017.
He is also praying for an order restraining the two, their agents, servants or anyone acting on their authority from “making any attempt to deport him from Ghana’’ or “harassing him until his application is determined’’.
Mr. Sivaram claimed that the GIS had refused to accept the money he paid as the requisite fee for his application for visa on arrival, which he claimed was “a deliberate attempt to decline his application.’’
He therefore wants the court to declare the purported action by the GIS as “unfair, unreasonable and not supported by law’’ and order for the GIS to accept the money and process his application for visa on arrival.
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By: Fred Djabanor/citifmonline.com/Ghana