Wife of YouTuber Karl Rock approaches Delhi HC against her husband’s arbitrary blacklisting by Centre

THE wife of popular YouTuber Karl Rock has approached the Delhi High Court alleging "arbitrary" and "unreasonable" blacklisting of her husband who has been unable to return to India since October 10, 2020.

Manisha Malik, an Indian national has been with Karl Rock, a New Zealand national whose birth name is Karl Edward Rice, since 2014 and married him in 2019.

The petitioner alleged that the denial of a visa to her husband who has been arbitrarily blacklisted by the Central Government had deprived her of living with her husband thereby violating her fundamental right to life and dignity as guaranteed under Article 21.

The plea asserted that Rock had been visiting India since 2013 strictly abiding by the laws of the country and the conditions of the visa.

"During the entire period since 2013, while the petitioner's husband has been granted Indian visa on various occasions, there hasn't been even a single allegation against the petitioner's husband", the plea said.

The plea said after the petitioner married Rock, the latter was granted an X-2 Visa (meant for spouse/children of an Indian citizen) which had a validity period of 06.05.2019 to 05.05.2024. One of the conditions in the said Visa was for the petitioner's husband to exit India every 180 days or to intimate the concerned Foreigner Regional Registration Office.

The petition alleged that while complying with this condition of exiting the nation, Rock left India on October 10, 2020, but had been unable to return because any application for issuance of an Indian Visa was being rejected by the respondents, Central Government.

"While the petitioner has been running from pillar to post and no reasons are communicated to either Mr. Karl Edward Rice or to the petitioner herself as to on what basis her husband's requests for issuance of visa have been rejected, the petitioner's husband was only verbally informed that he has been blacklisted and therefore he is not permitted to enter into India. The petitioner and her husband, separated by virtue of this sudden and arbitrary blacklisting by the respondents are also not been given any manner of an indication as to the nature or period of such blacklisting", the plea said.

The plea has been filed through Advocate Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi.