The right to travel abroad is a basic human right like any other right bestowed upon the citizens of the country, the Supreme Court has declared in a recent order.
The said order was given by the court while hearing the appeal filed by an IPS officer who had been refused permission to take a private trip abroad to visit his relatives in December 2018; the reason being that there was a departmental inquiry pending against him. Though the officer had no criminal charges pressed on him.
The order was set aside, the Supreme Court referred to the Maneka Gandhi judgment which upheld the right to travel calling it a fundamental right.
The court said that this basic human right “also extends to private life; marriage, family, and friendship”. These are part of human nature which can be “rarely affected through a refusal of freedom to go abroad”.
The bench of Justice LN Rao and MR Shah further extended the right to the right to private life which cannot be denied. The officer has been granted permission to travel abroad (The US) between April 28 and June 1.
The court ordered that the departmental inquiry could not be used as a ground to stop an individual from traveling across the globe. The court found no reason for the Government of India to deny permission to the appellant and directed the Centre to permit the appellant to travel abroad.
By Vidhi Sharma
