Henry loses right to contest

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 5

Having fought Assembly poll six times since 1986, former Congress minister Avtar Henry has been rendered ineligible to contest this time as poll authorities today cancelled his re-issued vote in his “dual citizenship” controversy.

The orders were issued by the returning officer of Jalandhar-North constituency, Barjinder Singh. Objections had been filed by three voters from Henry’s constituency seeking cancellation of his re-issued vote.

The Congress leader’s vote and Indian passport were annulled on November 30, 2012, on the orders of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. The directions came after Henry’s son from his first wife, Gurjeet Sanghera, alleged that his father held a British passport since 1969. It was alleged that the ex-minister’s Indian citizenship had ceased too, and that he never acquired it again.

On November 11, 2014, Henry got his passport re-issued with two-year validity on compassionate grounds following orders from a local court. The passport was re-issued yet again on July 20 this year, on the basis of which Henry got his vote re-issued on November 3. The order was passed by assistant returning officer Paramjit Singh Sahota.

While cancelling the vote today, Barjinder Singh cited the fact that the 2012 orders by the Ministry of Home (foreign division) still stood, and that Henry had so far not been able to acquire Indian citizenship again.

Blaming Regional Passport Officer Harmanbir Gill for the confusion, the returning officer alleged that the passport issued to Henry mentioned his citizenship as Indian. He has termed the passport office’s replies on Henry’s “Indian” status as “unsatisfactory”.

The passport office, however, has quoted Section 20 of the Passport Act: “The Central Government may issue a passport or travel document to a person who is not an Indian citizen if the government feels doing so is necessary in public interest.” The returning officer, however, does not point fingers at Sahota, who re-issued the vote despite his own office having cancelled it earlier.

The Congress is yet to announce the ticket from the seat, for which there are several contenders, including former Improvement Trust chairman Tajinder Bittu, Infotech ex-director Anil Dutta, local councillors and Henry’s son Bawa Henry, whom the ex-minister had been grooming for the last three years since the cancellation of his vote.