Canadian Court Upholds Denial of Asylum Plea by Indian Couple, Calls Claim ‘Disingenuous’

A Canadian federal court has supported the rejection of asylum claims by an Indian couple, holding that their assertion of risking persecution in India if they went back because of their pro-Khalistan activities here was "disingenuous."

In a decision handed down on Monday in Montreal, Federal Court Judge Benoit M Duchesne found it "reasonable" for the Refugee Appeal Division (RAD) of Canada's Refugee Board to uphold the previous ruling by the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) on February 15, 2024, and three months earlier, respectively.

The lead applicant, 38-year-old Amandeep Singh, and his wife and co-applicant, 32-year-old Kanwaldeep Kaur, had modified their original asylum application prior to presenting themselves before the RPD. They asserted that they had become believers in the Khalistan movement while in Canada and that they would be persecuted in India due to their changed political views. They presented protest photos and Punjab Referendum voter registration cards issued by the organization Sikhs for Justice, as per the court's judgment.

But the RPD found that the couple's involvement in the Khalistan cause was actually timed in a way that exposed "a lack of genuineness in the movement itself." The RAD concurred, calling the claim "disingenuous and lacking good faith." Those findings have been reaffirmed by the federal court this week.

The couple had initially claimed to have been targeted in India because of a fight with a neighbor over property matters and his political status, which had resulted in police harassment, they had stated. Court documents described, "The Applicants claim that they were questioned, threatened, accused of militancy, beaten, that the Associate Applicant was sexually assaulted, and that her fingerprints and signature were taken."

They traveled to Delhi in 2018 and arrived in Canada in June of the same year on a Temporary Resident Visa (TRV). However, the RPD and RAD both questioned the validity of the allegations.

Judge Duchesne said in his judgment, "The Applicants have not established that the Decision is unreasonable. There is no basis for the Court to interfere with the RAD's decision."

The federal government rejected the couple's asylum request on behalf of the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship.

Although he did not speak specifically about the case, Mississauga-based immigration consultant Kanwar Sierah clarified that asylum is meant for those who are "actually facing the threat of persecution." He also said that the Canadian system is plagued by false claims, which consequently "hurt genuine claimants."