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The Accra High Court has ordered the Ghana Immigration Service to restore the residence and work permits of an Indian businessman, Mr Ashok Kumar Sivaram.

According to the court, presided over by Mrs Justice Naa Adoley Azu, the permits must be restored within 7 days.

The court also ordered the GIS not to harass the businessman or make any attempt to deport him before restoring the permits

In a judgement Monday, the court was of the view that it had to compel the GIS to restore the permits after it failed in doing so when a deportation order against the businessman was quashed by the Accra High Court on July 31, 2017.

The court decision followed a mandamus application filed by the businessman to compel the GIS to restore his two years residence and work permits granted to him on November 24, 2016.

Application for mandamus

In his application, which named Mr Takyi and Mr Dery as respondents, the businessman is praying for the restoration of his residence and work permit, which was cancelled by the GIS following his deportation on June 1, 2017, on the basis that his deportation was quashed by the High Court on July 31, 2017.

He is also praying for an order restraining Mr Takyi and Mr Dery, their agents, servants or anyone acting on their authority from “making any attempt to deport him from Ghana’’ or “harassing him until his application is determined’’.

Mr Sivaram claimed that the GIS had refused to accept the money he paid as the requisite fee for his application for visa on arrival which he claimed was “a deliberate attempt to decline his application’’.

He, therefore, wants the court to declare the purported action by the GIS as “unfair, unreasonable and not supported by law’’ and order for the GIS to accept the money and process his application for visa on arrival.

Legal warfare

Mr Sivaram, Mr Takyi and Mr Dery have been embroiled in a legal warfare following Mr Sivaram’s deportation from the country by the GIS on June 1, 2017, in compliance with a deportation order signed by the Interior Minister on May 15, 2017.

Mr Sivaram has since petitioned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo over what he claimed to be a deliberate attempt by Mr Dery and Mr Takyi to deport him to aid his business partner to take over his (Mr Sivaram’s) company in the country.

The GIS has, however, refuted Mr Sivaram’s claims, explaining that neither the service nor Mr Dery had any interest in Mr Sivaram’s feud with his business partner.

Per the deportation order, Mr Sivaram was deported because he was alleged to have presented a fake marriage certificate in support of his application for a Ghanaian citizenship.