'Hasty detentions of foreign travellers risk India's image'

SC QUASHED A CASE AGAINST A NRI HELD FOR CARRYING A DEER HORN THAT WAS LATER CONFIRMED TO BE OF A SPECIES NOT PROTECTED UNDER INDIAN LAW

- Utkarsh Anand

The Supreme Court has pulled up authorities at international airports for their “hasty and ill-advised” detentions of foreign travellers, warning that such actions tarnish India’s global reputation, even as it quashed the prosecution of a nonresident Indian (NRI) who was arrested in Delhi for allegedly carrying a deer horn that forensic analysis later confirmed to be that of a reindeer—a species not protected under Indian wildlife law.

A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said there was an “imminent need to sensitise agencies handling affairs at international airports” so that officers desist from resorting to detention or arrest without legal clarity.