Union of India vs. Bahareh Bakshi
Background
Bahareh Bakshi, an Iranian citizen married to an Indian citizen, applied for an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) Card based on her marriage. Because the marriage had turned bitter (she was living separately, receiving court-ordered maintenance, and her husband refused to cooperate) the immigration authorities (FRRO) refused to process her OCI application without her husband's physical or virtual presence for a joint interview, as required by the government's Visa Manual and checklist. She approached the Delhi High Court, and both the Single Judge and the Division Bench ruled in her favour, holding that the husband's presence could not be mandatorily insisted upon. The Union of India appealed to the Supreme Court.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court set aside the High Court's rulings and held that the joint personal interview of both spouses is a mandatory verification step under the Visa Manual, introduced specifically to prevent "marriages of convenience" being used to obtain OCI status. Since the Citizenship Act, 1955 itself allows OCI registration to be made "subject to such conditions... as may be prescribed," the Visa Manual's interview requirement was a valid, unchallenged administrative procedure that could not simply be dispensed with by the courts. The Court held that the entire burden of proving the genuineness of the marriage lies on the applicant, not on the authorities to find alternative ways to verify it. However, the Court noted that Section 7A(3) of the Act allows the government to register a person as an OCI cardholder in "special circumstances," and left it open for Bakshi to seek consideration under that special provision.
Lesson Learnt
Government-prescribed verification procedures (like a mandatory joint interview for OCI applications based on marriage) cannot be bypassed by courts merely because personal circumstances make compliance difficult; an applicant facing such a hurdle should instead seek relief under any express "special circumstances" provision the law provides, rather than asking courts to waive the standard procedure outright.