LAHORE:
The Lahore High Court has ruled that any person, who is offloaded from a flight or otherwise restrained from travelling abroad, must be provided with written reasons at the time such action is taken, declaring the requirement a substantive legal safeguard rather than a mere procedural formality.
In a two-page interim order, Justice Ali Zia Bajwa, presiding the LHC’s Multan Bench, held that furnishing written reasons is essential to ensure transparency, accountability and an individual’s right to seek legal redress.
It warned that failure to provide such reasons not only violate the principles of natural justice and due process but also amount to an infringement of the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of movement.
The court made it clear that restrictions on travel, particularly where a passenger holds valid travel documents, cannot be imposed arbitrarily and must strictly conform to law. It emphasised that any action curtailing personal liberty must have a clear legal basis.
The observations were made during the hearing of a petition challenging the eleventh-hour offloading of a passenger.
During the hearing, the court queried the reasons for the petitioner’s offloading. In response, the law officer informed the court that no written reasons were available on record.
The court ordered that the petitioner be provided written reasons for his offloading well before the next date of hearing.
The court further ruled that any person who is offloaded or otherwise restrained from travelling abroad must be furnished with written reasons at the time such action is taken.
It clarified that this requirement is not a mere procedural formality but a substantive safeguard to ensure transparency, accountability, and the individual’s right to seek legal redress.
Failure to provide written reasons, the court observed, not only violates the principles of natural justice and due process but also amounts to an infringement of the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of movement.
The matter was directed to be taken up again on the next date of hearing, with instructions for the relevant authorities to assist the court further.
