UK professor moves Delhi HC against deportation from Kerala airport

The Delhi High Court on Monday, August 22, sought the Union government’s stand on UK-based veteran anthropologist and sociologist Filippo Osella's plea challenging his deportation from the Kerala airport. On March 24, Osella was deported back to the UK after he landed at the Thiruvananthapuram airport in Kerala. Justice Yashwant Varma on Monda granted time to the Union government’s counsel to file a response in the matter and slated the case for further hearing on October 12. Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Bureau of Immigration and FRRO, Trivandram are the respondents to the plea.

In his plea, Osella said that there were no reasons given for the ‘high-handed’ and ‘arbitrary’ conduct to deport him from Kerala and he was treated like a ‘hardened criminal’.

"Reasons were disturbingly absent in this high-handed and arbitrary conduct of the Immigration authorities at Thiruvananthapuram airport. By 4:30 a.m., the Professor was literally marched back and bundled into the same aircraft, in which he had arrived and was unjustly deported — much like a hardened criminal," the plea read.

"The authorities not only denied entry without any reason at all but also did not provide any reasonable opportunity to the petitioner to present his side," Osella’s plea added.

On March 24, upon arrival at the Thiruvananthapuram airport, Osella was received by an official who took him to the immigration desk. After a brief while, he was told that he was being deported. A professor of anthropology and south Asian studies at the University of Sussex, 65-year-old Osella is an expert on Kerala and had arrived to take part in a seminar.

Also read: ‘I am shocked and saddened, Kerala is my second home’: Filippo Osella on deportation 

After he was deported, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention. "Our country has a rich tradition of welcoming scholars and social scientists, who do conduct extensive field studies in various places covering diverse aspects of our social life and economy. These scholars have produced valuable research publications. We need to continue this tradition of being friendly and welcome these scholars," CM Pinarayi had said in the letter.