New Delhi, 14 May (H.S.): The Delhi High Court has withdrawn its order quashing the Central government's decision to reject journalist Siddharth Varadarajan's Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) application. Justice Purushendra Kumar Kaurav ordered the recall of the order.

During the hearing on Thursday, ASG Chetan Sharma, appearing for the Central government, stated that Varadarajan had not disclosed in his petition that the Allahabad High Court, while granting bail, had restrained him from leaving the country without court permission. After this information came to light, the court remarked that suppressing this fact would have serious consequences.

Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, representing Varadarajan, apologized to the court. The court then stated that it could accept the apology, but Siddharth Varadarajan must file an affidavit in court within seven days regarding his conduct. Thereafter, the court withdrew its order quashing the Central government's decision to reject Siddharth Varadarajan's Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) application.

Varadarajan holds US citizenship and also possesses a PIO card. All PIO cards expired on December 31, 2025, and are no longer valid documents for entry or stay in India. This happened because PIO cards were converted to OCI.

In his application, Varadarajan had stated that he had applied for an OCI card. His PIO card was valid until 2032, but PIO cards no longer exist. The petition stated that PIO cards are considered OCI cards, but Varadarajan wanted to obtain the physical OCI card. However, his application was rejected on April 2.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar