In 2016, Kaye was sentenced to six months in jail. In 2016, Kaye was sentenced to six months in jail.

The Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) has asked British-origin musician and founder member of the band The Ska Vengers, Stefan Felix Kaye, to take exit permit within two weeks and leave India, stating that he has been overstaying illegally since 2010.

Kaye, who is fighting a court case to be allowed to stay in India, said, “I do not subscribe to the view that one is always a subject of the country in which they were born, whatever passport they may have.”

The musician fears he will be deported to the UK, while his sixmonth-old daughter and wife, Ritika, will be left alone here. He is currently living with his family at Sainik Farm. “One’s home is the place where one feels the most at home. For me it is India. It has certainly not been an easy ride and I strongly believe that the country is separate from ‘the state’,” he told The Indian Express.

“My contribution to this country in the fields of arts is not insignificant… I do my small part as a pianist and composer. I am mostly accepted here… and am hindered only by the state’s refusal to accept my stay here as a legitimate one,” he added. FRRO’s order came against the backdrop of the High Court’s June 29 order, by which it had asked authorities to consider Kaye’s application for visa extension and Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI).

Kaye had come to India in February 2006, and met Ritika here. The two got married in December 2009. In the meantime, his visa expired and he was unable to get his marriage registered, even as proceedings were initiated against him. He was arrested in 2011 for overstaying in the country, and sent to Tihar Jail for three weeks.

In July 2016, Kaye was convicted by a trial court and sentenced to six months in jail, followed by deportation. On his appeal against his sentence and imprisonment, the High Court commuted his jail term to the time already spent behind bars, but gave orders for deportation.

He then appealed against his deportation and was given a single-stay permit in November 2017, which allowed him to remain in India till March 31, 2018, so he could be here for the birth of his child. He again moved the High Court, stating that his case was not considered fairly.

The court then asked the FRRO on three different occasions, most recently on June 29, to consider Kaye’s application for grant of OCI status, while directing it not to take any coercive measures against him. Subsequently, the FRRO passed an order on July 18, saying “your last employment visa was extended up to February 2010, and you were illegally overstaying since then.”

“Instead of taking Exit Permit from FRRO and going back to your country, you misused the overstay by engaging yourself in business activities by forming a private band, The Ska Vengers, in violation of visa norms, and did not fulfil the statutory compliances, like tax towards government of India,” states the FRRO order.

“It is quite sad when one has to be reminded that there are seemingly educated men…in positions of power and public trust who themselves have little to gain from such an outcome other than a sense of achievement for doing his nation, that is ruling party, proud for having taught the foreign intruder a lesson, irrespective of the irrevocable havoc they will wreak on the person’s life…” Kaye said in his plea.

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