“Free My Brother!”: Delhi HC Orders MEA to Rush Legal Aid for Celina Jaitly’s Jailed Sibling in UAE

Delhi High Court Steps In on behalf of Arrested Indian National.

The Delhi High Court has acted decisively on a petition made by a Bollywood actress Celina Jaitly who wants her brother to be released out of prison in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Justice Subramonium Prasad gave a stern order to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), wherein he instructed them to make decisive and immediate action to assist the jailed brother of the actress Vikrant Jaitly.

This action by the High Court was following an urgent writ petition by Ms. Jaitly. She says her brother is unjustly imprisoned in Dubai almost two years. It is a cry of desperation, supplication to the Indian government to employ all their diplomatic and legal means to bring her brother back to India and in safe surroundings.

With the order of the court, the family goes to request the government to change their family status and make it official. It puts the onus squarely on the MEA so as to make sure that an Indian citizen who is purportedly confined in a foreign law system is not abandoned to his/her own devices. The case identifies the severe problems that Indian expatriates may have in a foreign country.

Family Plea: Case of Better Cases of Wrongful Incarceration.

Celina Jaitly in her petition gave painful details of the ordeal her brother went through; it took him 22 months. She states that Vikrant Jaitley is not a criminal but a victim of a fraud case staged by his local UAE business partners. The family is insisting that he is totally innocent and that he was being led into an elaborate financial scheme.

The main aspect of the conflict is this is a check-bounce case, which is a highly severe criminal offense in the UAE. The family alleges that Vikrant partners after a business dispute took over his firm and thereafter, employed a bounced security check to incarcerate him. This they claim was an evil move that they did to ensure that he could not sue and reclaim his business.

The plea brings out the frustration and exhaustion of the family during the 22 years they had endured. According to them, they had approached several Indian authorities severally to seek their help but none of them managed to assist them. Their final option to crack the bureaucratic stalemate was to petition the High Court to ensure that the government did something drastic.

The family requests a lawyer, but the family is begging high-level intervention by the consular and diplomatic offices. They feel that only direct intervention of the Indian government would help to entangle the complex legal case and present the fraud they contend has resulted in the incarceration of Vikrant.

The Firm Directive of the MEA by Justice Prasad.

Justice Subramonium Prasad responded to the desperate call and came up with an unequivocal order to the Central Government. The court ordered the Ministry of External Affairs to seek assistance with all available avenues to offer help to Mr. Jaitly. This court order demands that government should cease being a spectator but actively intervene in the case.

An important element in the order is the instruction to give a speedy and efficient legal assistance. The court said that MEA should provide Vikrant Jaitly with a competent representation in the legal system in Dubai. This is a very vital move because the family asserts that the absence of adequate legal assistance has been the greatest challenge.

The government too was held accountable by the High Court. It instructed the lawyer of MEA to make a comprehensive status report during the following hearing. Every single step that has been made by the ministry to make it with the order of the court must be outlined in this report. This will make the exercise of government actions to be subject to scrutiny by the courts.

The directive given out by Justice Prasad rests on the basic obligation of the Indian state to defend its people, who are in need of help in the foreign territory. This is a ray of hope to the family because the order of the court implies that their cry has been heard at the top level and government machinery now has a duty to assist.

The Check Laws Check Legal Quagmire of UAE.

The case of Vikrant Jaitly raises a legal trap that is common in the UAE that most expatriates get into. Not so long ago, bounced check, no matter what the cause was, was not only a civil issue, but also a felony that resulted in almost a jail term. The laws have been softened but the penalties are harsh particularly when it comes to large sums.

The UAE local partners or sponsors usually require the undated security checks of their international counterparts. This is a widespread, albeit dangerous, company strategy. These checks can however be weaponized in a dispute. A local partner can take the check to the bank and in case it bounces, he can press a criminal complaint, and the signatory of the check is immediately arrested.

This is what Celina Jaitly claims to have happened to her brother. She says he was being entangled by his partners and they used this loophole of the law to incarcerate him and take over his enterprises. When an individual is incarcerated in one of the cases it is extremely hard to protect themselves because people are thrown in jail and in most cases their property is frozen.

This situation justifies the importance of the diplomatic and legal intervention, as mandated by the Delhi High Court. One of the lawyers that the Indian government can assign can initiate an objection to the foundation of criminal complaint. They will be able to claim that it is a malicious prosecution based on a civil business dispute but not actually a criminal act.