The Madhya Pradesh High Court quashed an FIR registered against a private house owner for allegedly failing to submit Form-C within 24 hours regarding the stay of a foreign national, holding that prosecution under the repealed Foreigners Act, 1946 is legally unsustainable after the coming into force of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025.

Justice Himanshu Joshi observed that once the 1946 Act stood repealed with effect from September 1, 2025, neither the Act nor the Registration of Foreigners Rules, 1992 could be invoked for acts occurring thereafter.

The Court held that subordinate legislation does not survive repeal of the parent statute unless expressly saved, and any obligation or penal consequence must flow only from the new 2025 regime.

Terming the FIR “ex facie illegal and without authority of law,” the Court ruled that no person can be prosecuted under a law that was not in force on the date of the alleged omission, and clarified that the saving clause preserves only past actions, not fresh prosecutions.

Accordingly, the FIR and all consequential proceedings were quashed, while granting liberty to authorities to proceed, if permissible, strictly under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025.

Case: MUKHTIYAR AHMED KHAN versus UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS

Case No: WRIT PETITION No. 48763 of 2025

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