Lagos — The Federal Government has appealed the judgment of a Federal High Court in Lagos which declared the deportation of the Vaswani brothers and 30 other Indians illegal last week.

The government also urged the court to stay execution of its judgment pending the determination of the appeal filed at the Court of Appeal in Lagos.

The Vaswani brothers were deported over allegations of evading payment of customs duties on imported rice.

Justice Mohammed Liman of the Federal High Court had voided government's letters withdrawing the expatriate quota to the foreigners, declaring the action as null, void and of no effect whatsoever.

The judge, who held that due process of law and fair hearing was not followed in the entire process culminating in the deportation, set aside the decision, further restrained government from confiscating or sealing the business premises of the foreigners and disturbing them from carrying out their business.

Citing Section 18, 19 and 45 of the Immigration Act, Justice Liman said government's action, "Is an administrative one which must be based on law and the constitution empowers the court to determine whether those actions are in accordance with the law."

But in the notice of appeal against the judgment, made available to THISDAY, the Federal Government through its lawyer, Chiesonu Okpoko, based the appeal on four grounds.

The Federal Government said the learned judge erred in law when he dismissed government's application of notice of preliminary objection and assumed jurisdiction to entertain and hear the plaintiffs' suit.

It argued that the withdrawal of the expatriate quota of the applicants' positions and their consequent deportation constitute an act of state, which the municipal courts lack the requisite jurisdiction to adjudicate upon.

It argued that in law, municipal courts should not interfere with the exercise by the Federal Government of its sovereign political powers to withdraw the expatriate quota positions and deportation foreigners.

The FG said the issuance of the Expatriate Quota position or resident permit was not a contractual or constitutional right but a privilege, adding that the plaintiffs' commencement of the action by the originating summons procedure was wrong.

It stated that the judge erred in law when he gave judgment in favour of the applicants as there was no dispute between the defendants and the applicants to be adjudicated upon and that the applicants did not disclose any locus standi to evidence adduced by them at the trial.

No date had been fixed for hearing of the appeal.

The Vaswani brothers - Sunil, Haresh and Mahesh and other expatriate workers of Stallion Group of Companies were deported following their alleged involvement in an alleged N2.7 billion import duty evasion scam.

The development had already led to the arraignment of a former Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Hamman Bello Ahmed and a former Apapa Area Comptroller of Customs, Hajia Hannatu Sulaiman in court.

The plaintiffs had filed the matter before the court through their lawyers, Professor Gabriel Olawoyin and J. A Badejo, challenging the withdrawal of their expatriate quota through a letter dated 8 of April, 2009.

According to the suit, the plaintiffs also listed the Federal Attorney General, Michael Aandoakaa, Minister of Interior, Nigerian Immigration Service, State Security Service and the Inspector General of Police as respondents to the suit.

The plaintiffs argued that the withdrawal of their expatriate quota allocations without any reason was unconstitutional and urged the court to restrain the government from taking any action that would jeopardise their business interest in Nigeria.