See Circular should not end up violating the fundamental right to growth and prosperity: Madras HC

Madras High Court. File | Photo Credit: K. Pichumani

Realizing that the Look Out Circulars (LOC) issued to prevent people from going to other countries should not end up violating the fundamental right to growth and prosperity, the Madras High Court on Friday (December 6, 2024) ordered that the investigating agencies must focus on making people. the concerned person should return to the country to face prosecution instead of imposing a total travel ban.

Justice N. Seshasayee decided the procedure, similar to the bail conditions, for the suspension of the LOC and said that people can be allowed to travel abroad freely by ordering them to give surety and provide security, without ordering the guarantors to submit their passports. Such a move will help balance people’s interests and prosecutions, he said.

The orders were passed while allowing writ petitions filed by Company Secretary Pathan Apser Hussen and businessman Jeevanandam Rajesh alias Saravanan, who challenged the ban imposed on their travel abroad due to pending criminal cases. The Bureau of Immigration under the Union Home Ministry had issued LOCs against them during the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Looking at the issue from the point of view of guaranteed rights under the Constitution, the judge said, the Supreme Court of the United States was fighting for the right to travel abroad as part of freedom and the Supreme Court of India got inspiration from the government. American law. He said, the fundamental right to life, guaranteed under Article 21, includes the right to growth and prosperity.

“Living in the fullest sense is achieved when life is allowed to grow and flourish, and is stopped only where one chooses to stop.” In that sense, the right to grow and prosper is not limited to material growth, but extends to all aspects of life, from physical, mental, material, emotional and spiritual well-being,” wrote Justice Seshasayee while explaining that the need to travel can be for any purpose.

He continued: “From vacationing to building relationships to socializing at work to pilgrimage and education, there can be endless human activities that can fit into this concept, and each can contribute to a person’s growth and prosperity. The choice lies with the holder of the right. How a person exercises his right to life is not something that affects the law as long as it is legal.”

The judge also commented: “We make the Constitution, therefore, we have a duty to support its views. Any process that operates inconsistently with the right to growth and prosperity is an affront to constitutional aspirations and against constitutional principles. If the Constitution cannot guarantee what it promises, that would be a betrayal of the Constitution for all of us. The Constitution will never fail unless we fail.”

Expressing doubts about the use of the phrase ‘Look Out Circular’ and the color of anger it has as it is being lashed at law makers and law-abiding people alike, the judge said: “However, until the Supreme Court formulates and implements an equitable alternative. To be effective, the LOC may need to continue with the rider not to destroy the right to travel abroad and kill the right to grow and prosper forever.”

The judge also said that some bad incidents of some people who flew out of the country to escape the legal process seem to have created fear in the investigating agencies and eventually led them to issue LOCs indiscriminately to each other. “But do a few trees define a forest?” the judge asked before warning them of the violation of a fundamental right.