The wife of controversial New Zealand-based Youtuber Karl Rock, who has been currently blacklisted by the Government of India over multiple visa violations, has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court asking them to quash the blacklisting order that prevents him from returning to India, reports Live Law.
According to the reports, Manisha Malik, wife of New Zealand YouTuber Karl Edward Rice, popularly known as Karl Rock, has moved the Delhi High Court seeking to quash the orders issued by the Government of India to cancel his visa over repeated violation of the terms of his visa.
In a petition filed through Advocate Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, the plaintiff challenged the order to blacklist Karl Rock, saying it was “arbitrary and unreasonable”. The petitioner also stated that the order deprived her of living with her husband, and her fundamental right to life and dignity under Article 21 has been violated.
The petition also claimed that Karl Rock, who has dual nationality of New Zealand and Netherlands, has been visiting India since 2013 and has strictly followed all the laws as well as the conditions of the visa. Further, the petition said that Karl Rock was granted an X-2 visa, a visa granted to spouses or children, which is set to expire in May 2024.
“In compliance of a condition for the X-2 Visa which compels the Petitioner’s spouse to exit India every 180 days or intimate the concerned Foreign Regional Registration Office (FRRO), Rice left India on 10.10.2020 and has not been able to return to India as his application for issuance of an Indian visa is being rejected the Respondents,” the petition claimed.
The petitioner claimed that neither the petitioner nor Karl Edward Rice was communicated as to on what basis the request for issuance of visa has been rejected. The petitioner said that her husband was only verbally informed that he has been not allowed to visit India.
The petition went on to claim that the non-communication of grounds of blacklisting and continued silence by the Indian government over the blacklisting was an arbitrary abuse of power and infringes both Article 19 and Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Hence, the petitioner urged the court to quash the blacklisting as well as issue Karl Rock an Indian visa.
Youtuber Karl Rock blacklisted from India over multiple visa violations
On Friday (July 9), India-based New Zealand origin vlogger Karl Rock alleged that the Indian government had blacklisted him. Karl Rock, who is a traveller living partly in India for over two years ago, was blacklisted from entering India over multiple visa violations.
In a video, Karl Rock, who is married to an Indian, claimed that after he went to stay in Dubai and Pakistan for some time, where he found that his Indian visa was cancelled. He had said as he returned to Dubai to get the visa renewed, he was told that the Indian government had blacklisted him.
Initially, it was speculated that the controversial New Zealand-based Youtuber Karl Rock was blacklisted for his support to anti-India causes, like his support for anti-CAA protests in 2019, however, later sources from the Union Home Ministry had revealed that the New Zealand national was barred from entering India for the next year for violating the terms of his visa.
Karl Rock was discovered doing business on a tourist visa while also breaking other visa rules. Later, more details emerged saying that Karl Rock violated Visa norms on at least three occasions while he was in India on a tourist visa.
Since 2016, Karl Rock, who was granted a tourist visa twice, first in 2016 and again in 2018 for five years, had violated the terms of his visa by writing a book on his tour and also publishing video reports about India, which was clearly violating of visa guidelines. In addition, he had also visited restricted areas in the country, which was, in turn, a violation of tourist visa rules.
Further, in 2018, the Government of India had again granted him an X-2 Visa and allowed him to stay in the country for another five years till 2024. However, Karl Rock, who had already violated the terms of his visa three times in the past, participated in an anti-CAA protest and published it on his Youtube channel.
Following his repeated violations of the terms of the visa granted to him by the Indian government, the Home Ministry took a serious note and has cancelled the visa granted for Youtuber Karl Rock. Therefore, Rock had a tourist visa from 2016 to 2018 and 2018 to 2023. Further, he was granted an X2 visa from 2019 to 2024, but he ended up violating visa norms again. According to sources, each time a visa was granted to him, Karl Rock ended up violating the visa norms and was therefore put on the blacklist.
