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• The Chief Minister of Delhi has asked why the Union Government has hindered the clearance of his Singapore trip.
  • The Delhi Chief Minister has been invited to attend a World City summit, which is scheduled between July 31st-August 3 in Singapore.
• The Delhi CM has criticized the Union Government by highlighting that; this doesn't happen for the first time, in 2019 also the Union government had not approved to attend C 40 Climate Summit in Denmark, which was later addressed through video conferencing.

Details

• Chief Ministers have to inform the Union Cabinet Secretariat and the Ministry of External Affairs about the proposed foreign visit of Chief Ministers and Ministers of State Governments/Union Territories.
  • Political clearance and Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) clearance are mandatory for any foreign visit.
• Chief Ministers and Ministers of State governments need to send a copy of the application to the Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA).

Political Clearance

• The authority to issue Political clearance comes under the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
• Public servants and any government servants must need clearance for a foreign trip.
• The External Ministry gets requests for political clearance.
• The final decision on the clearance is taken based on several factors such as;
  • The nature of the event.
  • The level of participation from other countries.
  • The kind of invitation.
  • India’s relations with the host country.
• Since 2016, applications for political clearance can be made on the portal epolclearance.gov.in.
• The clearance is issued after inter-Ministerial coordination through a dedicated ‘Coordination Division’.
• Without this Political clearance, no public servant or Government servant can go abroad.

Other types of clearances

• Officers working under different government departments need several additional clearances from their respective departments.
• Chief Ministers, ministers of state governments and other state officials need clearance from the Department of Economic Affairs.
• Union Ministers, after getting political clearance from the MEA, additional clearance is needed from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
• The Lok Sabha MPs need clearance from the Speaker.
• The Rajya Sabha members need clearance from the Chairperson (Vice President of India).
• For MPs, it is not mandatory to inform the Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha secretariat if the trip is private.
• Officers working under different ministries up to the Joint Secretary level also need clearance by the minister concerned, after political clearance by MEA.
  • For those above the rank of Joint Secretary Level, their proposal needs to be approved by a screening committee of secretaries.
• Rules differ according to;
  • The period of the visit.
  • The country to be visited.
  • The number of members in a delegation.
• If the foreign trip includes the visit of organizations other than the UN, then the FCRA clearance is mandatory from the Union Home Ministry.
• For government employees, all foreign trips, official or personal, need approval.

Do judges also need clearance for a foreign visit?

• For official foreign travel, the application of a Supreme Court or High Court judge is sent to the Department of Justice (DoJ) after getting approval from the Chief Justice of India.
• The Department of Justice, after taking political clearance from the Ministry of External Affairs and in some cases from the Home Ministry (when FCRA is involved), grant permission.
• Before February 2010, Political clearance from the MEA was needed even for personal trips, since then it is not mandatory in case of private visits.
  • The decision was challenged in the Delhi High Court but was rejected by the court.
  • Therefore Judges do not need clearance for personal foreign trips.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/clearing-cms-foreign-trips-8037634/

https://t.me/+hJqMV1O0se03Njk9

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