A borrower who had paid off his outstanding study loan is suing the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) for failing to remove his name from the immigration ‘blacklist'.

An ‘oversight' is said to have caused Mandeep Singh, 28, to be publicly detained by immigration officials and prevented from leaving Malaysia on July 6, while departing for a holiday to Guangzhou, China.

"The plaintiff was publicly shamed, resulting in loss of reputation and experiencing a blow to personal dignity, as if he was a person with low self-awareness and is a criminal.

"The failure to remove the plaintiff's name from the blacklist also caused him to lose his freedom to travel freely, with the defendant having stripped the plaintiff's rights," says Mandeep's affidavit filed in the sessions court in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

PTPTN informed of his travel

This, despite the fact that he informed the authorities that he had settled the outstanding loan amount due to the education fund, totalling RM2,330.82.

ptptn one stop centre kl sentral 260307 booths The payment, Mandeep said, had been acknowledged by PTPTN with an official receipt.

He had also informed PTPTN in advance of his intention to travel overseas, asking it to remove his name from the blacklist nearly a month before his scheduled trip.

"The defendant (PTPTN), despite prior notice from the plaintiff, had failed, defaulted and was negligent in not removing the plaintiff's name from the immigration blacklist," the legal suit states.

Mandeep is suing for general, punitive and exemplary damages to be set by the court, as well as legal costs and special damages incurred that caused him to forego his holiday in China, totalling RM19,000 in ticket costs, hotel deposits and foreign currency exchanged.