The court refused to accept Shah's contention that he had made an innocent mistake. Shah in his plea sought a direction to the Union government to issue him a visa to travel to India or an Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card. “If, having obtained Belgian citizenship, he (Shah) still travelled on his Indian passport anywhere, then that had to be a deliberate and conscious act and cannot possibly be a mistake or inadvertence. This is a clear violation of law,” the court said.