IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATE OF TELANGANA AT HYDERABAD THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NAGESH BHEEMAPAKA WRIT PETITION No.12109 of 2023

20^thJanuary, 2026 Between:

1. Suryanarayana Penubolu S/o late P. Balagurmurty, and others … Petitioners AND

1. The Union of India, represented by its Under Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, and others.

… Respondents

ORDER

The case of the petitioners, precisely as per the writ affidavit, is that they are associated with SOLON INTERNATIONAL LL FZE, a company incorporated in Fujairah, UAE, which entered into a Facility Agreement dated 31.03.2015 with Punjab National Bank (PNB) for a term loan not exceeding USD 3,960,000. The petitioners No.1 and 2 acted as personal guarantors for this agreement, while the petitioner No.3 was merely an employee and not a guarantor. A dispute over payments led PNB to initiate litigation in the UAE. Specifically, Civil Suit No. 279 of 2020 was filed against the company, a case which, after appeal, was remanded to the Fujairah First Instance Court for re-review by the Supreme Court, Abu Dhabi, by judgment dated 08.11.2022, and remains pending. Concurrently, Civil Suit No. 278 of 2020 was filed against the personal guarantors (petitioners No.1 and 2). This suit was decided in the bank's favour on 18.03.2020, a judgment upheld by the Fujairah Appellate Court on 31.05.2021 in Case No. 100 of 2021, and finally confirmed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court on 24.08.2021 in Case No. 706 of 2021.

1.1 The petitioners allege that PNB then filed an execution petition on 27.09.2021, leading the Fujairah Civil Execution Court to issue stringent orders on 30.08.2022, including a travel ban preventing the guarantors from leaving the UAE, seizure orders, and attachment of assets. The impact of these foreign proceedings was directly felt in India on 10.12.2022, when the petitioner No.2 was prevented from boarding a flight at Hyderabad GMR Airport after immigration authorities cited a travel ban issued at the behest of PNB under UAE Case No. 0000621/FUCEXICOM2021-Commercial (Total). The petitioners state that they successfully challenged these UAE execution orders and that the Fujairah Civil Execution Court cancelled them vide Order No. 109202312392611 dated 09.01.2023. Crucially, the petitioners argue that the respondent Bank has improperly extended the scope of the now- cancelled UAE travel ban to India. They emphasise that the petitioner No.3, who was never a guarantor to the Facility Agreement dated 31.03.2015, has also been subjected to this ban without any legal order justifying such action.

1.2 In an effort to resolve the matter administratively, the petitioners sent a detailed representation dated 20.02.2023 to Respondent No. 2, marking a copy to Respondent No. 4 (PNB). This correspondence requested the removal of the travel bans and lookout notices in India, on the ground that the underlying UAE court orders had been cancelled and that no Court in India had issued any such restrictive order. The petitioners state that, to date, they have received no response to this representation, thereby their right to travel for business and personal reasons is being unlawfully curtailed.

1.3 The petitioners' primary allegation is that the respondents, particularly PNB and the immigration authorities, are colluding to enforce an extraterritorial and legally defunct penalty without domestic jurisdiction, thereby acting arbitrarily. They further allege that the inclusion of the petitioner No.3 demonstrates a vindictive overreach by the Bank. It is contended that the respondents stand that the petitioners are liable for a substantial debt and therefore they cannot be permitted to travel abroad, necessitating the restrictions to secure the Bank's recovery efforts is not tenable. The petitionerscontend that this position is baseless, especially since the primary suit against the company is still pending adjudication and the execution orders have been vacated, rendering the continued travel res