Delhi HC permits Nimisha's mom to travel to Yemen

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Tuesday allowed Nimisha Priya's mother to travel to Yemen, where her daughter is on death row for killing a Yemeni national, and negotiate about blood money with the victim's family.

Justice Subramonium Prasad directed the Centre to relax its 2017 notification, which barred Indian passport holders from travelling to Yemen, and allow Prema Mary, the mother of the Malayali nurse, to travel to the troubled West Asian country. On December 1, the Union government denied her permission to travel to Yemen citing security reasons. 

The court asked Mary to file an affidavit that she would travel with another person to Yemen to negotiate her daughter's release at her own risk and responsibility without any liability to the Indian government or the Kerala government.

The Centre had submitted before the court that India does not have diplomatic ties with Yemen and it has closed down its embassy there. The government also told the court that no international treaty is applicable in that country in the present scenario.  (India closed down its embassy in the Yemeni capital Sana'a in 2015 after the fierce fighting between Houthi rebels and the coalition forces led by Saudi Arabia.) 

Mary in her plea asked the court to allow her travel as well as of three others to Yemen to negotiate with the victim's family about paying blood money to save her daughter. (Blood money refers to the compensation paid by offenders or their kin to the family of a murder victim.)

Yemen's Supreme Court had on November 13 dismissed the appeal by Nimisha, who was working as a nurse in the West Asian country, against her sentence. She was convicted of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi in July 2017, after she injected him with sedatives to get back her passport from his possession.

During the hearing, the Centre's counsel informed the Delhi High Court that the government had notified on September 26, 2017, stating that an Indian passport holder cannot travel to the troubled nation.

The court noted that clause 3 of the notification gives power to the government to relax its provisions for specific and essential reasons for which the central government may grant a limited time at the express request of the applicant who will travel at their risk without any liability to the Government of India.

The court observed orally why should there be so much reluctance on the Centre's part for a mother making a last attempt to save her daughter from the gallows.  

The 'Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council approached the high court last year and sought direction from the Centre to "facilitate diplomatic interventions as well as negotiations with the family of the victim on behalf of Nimisha to save her life by paying blood money in accordance with the law of the land in a time-bound manner".

The petition alleged Mahdi had forged documents to show he and Nimisha were married and abused and tortured her.

The high court had earlier refused to direct the Centre to negotiate payment of blood money to save Nimisha's life but asked it to pursue legal remedies against her conviction.
(With PTI inputs)