NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday granted time till November one, to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to examine Bharti Yadav's plea for extension of her visa to enable her deposition in the Nitish Katara murder case.
Justice A K Sikri granted the time after the MEA counsel A K Vali pleaded for the same on the ground that the ministry was in the process of examining the relevant rules to consider the plea.
The court had earlier on October 17 asked the Centre to consider whether Bharti's plea for extension of her visa could be directly taken up by the Indian Embassy with their UK counterparts.
Earlier, Bharti through her counsel R K Kapoor has moved an application pleading that the Indian Embassy take up the issue of her visa extension directly with UK counterpart as she herself would be in India for her scheduled deposition before the trial judge on November 25.
As per the visa rules, the applicant has to be personally appear before the issuing authority.
Kapoor has sought the Centre's assurance that Bharti's visa period would be extended along with the release of her impounded passport to facilitate the deposition.
The counsel apprehended that if the visa was allowed to expire on November 30, Bharti would not be able to return to UK for pursuing her studies and further feared that she could even be arrested.
He submitted that Bharti was willing to deposit her passport after its release with the trial judge until the deposition.
