By Relly Sa'ar, Haaretz Correspondent

The Tel Aviv District Court issued a ruling on Wednesday forbidding the state to deport a Colombian national in a relationship with an Israeli citizen, a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, despite the fact that his visa has long expired.

The 32-year-old Colombian is seeking permanent residency in Israel, but the Interior Ministry had decided to deport the man until a final decision is reached regarding his status. The ministry's decision was overridden on Wedensday in a ruling by Judge Uzi Vogelman.

A 1999 High Court ruling established that the ministry could not deport foreign nationals married to Israeli citizens. Wednesday's ruling extends the previous one, and applies it to common-law marriages common-law marriages, including same-sex couples. The new court decision will lead to fundamental changes in the policy of the Interior Ministry.

In practice, the Interior Ministry deports foreign nationals illegally staying in the country while their request for permanent residency is being considered. The court, however, has established that such policy "infringes more than is necessary on a couple's right to normal family life, hence it does not meet the yardstick of morality expected of such a body."

The couple's petition was submitted by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. The decision does not mention the fact that the couple in question is a same sex couple, but rather relates to the right of any Israeli and foreigner to live together in a common-law marriages relationship, without the state's intervention.

During his term of office as Interior Minister, MK Avraham Poraz (Shinui) had established a lenient procedure recognizing the rights of couples unable to marry (such as same-sex couples) to remain together in-spite of visas' expiry.

The former minister has directed that such couples could become permanent residents in a gradual process. As the petition revealed, some officials in the Population Registry, however, questioned the validity of this directive. Consequently, the immigration administration refused to grant the Colombian national an official residency status, on the pretext that the couple's relationship was not genuine.

The Interior Ministry issued a deportation warrant based on what it considered as an illegal stay of the Colombian national, and notified the man he must leave the country before his request for permanent residency would be considered.

Judge Uzi Vogelman, however, has ruled that "the harm done in this instance to the petitioners is particularly disturbing ? the couple's income consists only of a military salary... since the petitioner facing deportation cannot legally work in Israel."

The court severely criticized the Interior Ministry for concealing its regulations for granting residency status for foreign nationals in common-law marriages with Israeli citizens, including same-sex couples.

It was also revealed in court that the ministry withheld the content of the regulations from the legal system as well. Quoting the late Supreme Court Justice Haim Cohen, Judge Vogelman stipulated that "secretive law-making" is "one of the characteristics of totalitarian regimes, and does not correspond with the practices of a democracy.