Sessions court turns down Indian lawyer’s plea for Geeta’s blood samples

Karachi
The District and Sessions Court South on Thursday dismissed the application of an Indian lawyer seeking blood samples of Geeta, a deaf and mute Indian girl stuck in Pakistan for over a decade, to help trace her family.
The court observed that the lawyer should request information through the proper channel by filing an application to the High Commission of India.
Momin Malik, an Indian lawyer and rights activist, had filed an application under section 522 of the Criminal Procedure Code for obtaining the necessary details and information about Geeta alias Guddi who was stated to be stranded in Pakistan for the past 13 years and was a resident of Edhi shelter home.
The lawyer stated in his application that he wanted to obtain the necessary details from Geeta to ascertain whether she was an Indian national or not. He said five individual families in India were claiming that Geeta was their daughter after coming to know about her presence in Pakistan. He requested since all five families could not bear the expenses for verification, therefore, his application should be allowed for obtaining the necessary information and blood samples so she may be facilitated to go back to her native village to join her family members.
Deputy District Attorney Wahid Ansari argued that the applicant had no authority to file the application because he was neither a family member of Geeta nor was he authorised by the Indian government or any relevant authority. He said the lawyer’s application was not maintainable since the sessions court had very limited scope to entertain the request.
He said the applicant should approach the High Commission of India to facilitate Geeta’s travel from Pakistan to India.
The counsel for Edhi Shelter Home, Naeem Qureshi, opposed the application submitting that the applicant was not authorised by the Indian government to proceed to Pakistan and get the information in relation to the family members of Geeta. He submitted that neither those five family members who claimed Geeta to be their daughter nor any court of India had authorised the applicant to get the information and facilitate the girl regarding her shifting to India.
The court, after hearing the counsel and recording Geeta’s statement with the assistance of special persons’ teacher, observed that applicant was required to submit the proper application with the High Commission of India by providing the required information through the proper channel since it was the commission’s specific domain to move the ministry of foreign affairs to transmit the request of applicant.
The court observed that the applicant had no privilege to seek such a remedy from the court since the matter with regards to nationality of a citizen had to be decided by the governments of both countries via diplomatic channels and disposed of the petition as not maintainable.
It is pertinent to mention that Geeta has been stranded in Pakistan for the past 13 years. The Punjab Rangers had handed her over to the Edhi Foundation after she crossed over the border on a train by mistake.
Now in her early 20s, Geeta had been around 11 years old when she inadvertently crossed over from India to Pakistan.
Her story came to light after a movie based on similar plot — Bajrangi Bhaijan — was released last month in which superstar Salman Khan reunited a deaf and mute girl to her family in Kashmir. After the movie was released and Geeta’s story came to light, Indian High Commissioner TCA Raghavan visited her at the Edhi Centre and promised to do everything in his power to take her back to India.