NEW DELHI: India on Thursday said Australian authorities have no legal capacity to decide the issue of allegations by a former domestic employee of the former Indian envoy to Australia about unpaid wages and working conditions.
Any grievance of the former service staff of the Indian high commission in Canberra has to be “suitably redressed only in India”, external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told a regular media briefing.
Bagchi made the remarks while responding to a question about Australia’s Federal Court ordering India’s former high commissioner, Navdeep Suri, to pay the former domestic employee more than AUD$136,000 ( ₹72.7 lakh) plus interest, within 60 days.
Suri, who retired in 2019, served as India’s envoy to Australia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
“Let me reiterate that we reject any locus standi of Australian authorities to adjudicate on matters concerning such India-based service staff of the high commission. Any grievance that she may have has to be suitably redressed only in India,” Bagchi said.
The former service staff of the high commission in Canberra “willfully deserted her post” in May 2016, a day before her scheduled return to India. She was holding an official passport and an Australian diplomatic visa.
“Since then, we have repeatedly requested Australian authorities to locate and repatriate her to India,” Bagchi said. “We have learnt that she has made allegations against the then high commissioner, and an ex-parte judgement has now been issued by an Australian court.”
The former service staff’s “conduct and false representations give rise to suspicions that all this has been motivated by her desire to permanently stay in Australia, and in which she seems to have succeeded”, Bagchi added.
India is concerned by the ex-parte court judgement and is taking up the matter with Australian authorities. “We would urge Australia to uphold its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, particularly in relation to diplomatic immunities and privileges,” he said.
The former service staff, Seema Sherghill, arrived in Australia in April 2015 and worked for Suri for about a year at his Canberra residence. She fled the residence in May 2016 and contacted the Fair Work Ombudsman, who put her in contact with the Salvation Army. She was subsequently granted Australian citizenship in 2021, according to reports in the Australian media.
Australia’s Federal Court ruled that Suri was not eligible to claim either foreign state immunity or diplomatic immunity on the grounds that the engagement of a domestic worker was not an official function, but this has been contested by the Indian side.
