Supreme Court refused to accord an urgent hearing to the plea of the estranged British husband of yesteryear’s supermodel Ujjwala Raut against cancellation of his coveted Person of Indian Origin card and his impending deportation.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam slated the hearing of Craig Maxwell’s plea for Tuesday. Appearing for Maxwell, advocate Devdatt Kamat pleaded to the bench that his client, presently in hiding, runs the risk of being caught and deported to London following cancellation of his PIO card by the central government Aug 10.
Kamat told the court that Maxwell had approached the Goa bench of the Bombay HC earlier, but even it refused to accord an urgent hearing to his plea and slated the matter for further hearing Aug 28.
The Supreme Court bench, however, refused to accord an urgent hearing to Maxwell’s plea, saying he has not yet surrendered to the authorities. In his lawsuit, Maxwell, a British national residing in Goa, sought that the court ask the central government take no steps to deport him and restore his PIO card.
Maxwell said he married the supermodel in New York in 2002 and since his wife, being a supermodel, was reluctant to give up her career, he gave up his own business of film production so he could take care of their daughter Ksha, born to them June 2005.