GIS Fights Indian Businessman Man Again

The legal tussle between Ashok Kumar Sivaram, the Indian businessman in Ghana and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) headed by Kwame Asuah Takyi is far from over.

This time around, the Attorney-General has filed a motion on notice seeking to stay the execution of an Accra High Court ruling ordering the GIS to restore the residence and work permit of Ashok within seven days.

The court presided over by Mrs.  Justice Naa Adorley Azu had also ordered GIS not to attempt to deport Ashok within the period.

The court had granted the applicant’s request for injunction restraining the GIS from harassing the Indian businessman in whatever shape or form until the permit is issued.

The court’s orders follow an application for mandamus filed by lawyers of the Indian businessman challenging the cancellation of his work and residence permit leading to his subsequent deportation by the GIS.

Ashok was asking the court to make an order of Mandamus directed at the respondents-the Minister of Interior and Director/Controller of Immigration to restore his residence/work permit which was cancelled by the GIS on the basis of a Deportation Order dated May 15, 2017 which was quashed by the High Court in a ruling dated July 31, 2017.

But ten days after the judgment, the AG is back in court in an attempt to reverse the decision of the judge.

Affidavit

In a 21-paragraph affidavit in support of the motion deposed to by one Cecilia Boatemaa Tufuor, an Assistant State Attorney, the AG insists that if the orders of the court were not stayed, it would open the floodgates for persons within the category of Ashok to use judicial means to prevent the GIS from performing its mandate adding “this may further put the security of the nation at stake.”

She argued that if the order was not stayed it would serve as a precedent for others to resort to the court for the grant of residence/work permit though same had been revoked legally.

The Assistant State Attorney further averred that the orders of the judge ought to be stayed in order not to serve as a precedent for the grant of immunity to a party from the consequences of breaching an act of Parliament.

According to her, the order by the court was “a direct interference with the work of the Ghana Immigration Service.”

Ashok Disagrees

In a response to the affidavit in opposition to the application, the Indian businessman arguing through his lawyer, Gary Nimako Marfo said the applicants have not demonstrated exceptional circumstances to warrant the court to exercise its discretion in their favour.

He said the applicants have not demonstrated in their affidavit what they stand to lose if the residence/work permit was (revoked).

Gary among other things indicated that the notice of appeal filed by the applicants on September 19, 2017 is a sham and merely to frustrate the erudite ruling of the court.

Ashok said he is a businessman who needs to be free to travel in and out of the country to conduct his business engagements while the applicants pursue their appeal.

He said that in the view of the conduct of the GIS, he would not be surprised if the matter travels to the Supreme Court.