india

Updated: Apr 20, 2019 00:13 IST

The right to travel abroad is an important basic human right, the Supreme Court said, as it allowed an Indian Police Service officer to travel abroad, permission for which was denied to him due to a pending departmental enquiry.

A bench of justices LN Rao and MR Shah also said the right extended to private life. “The right to travel abroad is an important basic human right for it nourishes independent and self-determining creative character of the individual, not only by extending his freedoms of action, but also by extending the scope of his experience,” the judges held while allowing IPS officer SC Verma’s appeal against the decision of Madras High Court.

The officer can now travel (visit his family in the US) between April 28 and June 1.

“The right also extends to private life; marriage, family and friendship are humanities which can be rarely affected through refusal of freedom to go abroad and clearly show that this freedom is a genuine human right,” the court said. Posted as the Inspector General of Police at the Central Training College, Central Reserve Police Force at Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Verma was not allowed to travel in December 2018 because there was a departmental enquiry pending against him.

He moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) that declined him permission to go on the private trip. CAT’s decision was upheld by the Madras High Court last year . Before the SC, Verma contended that there were no criminal cases pending against him and that the departmental enquiry initiated against him was under challenge.

SC relied on an earlier verdict delivered in the Maneka Gandhi case, wherein the right to travel was held as a fundamental right by the top court, to set aside the HC order.

A pending departmental enquiry cannot be a ground to restrain Verma from travelling on a private trip, the top court said while ordering the Centre to grant him the requisite permission for travelling.