New Delhi: Making it clear that India cannot be allowed to become the refugee capital of the world, the Centre on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court not to intervene in the executive decision on deportation of Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar.
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta made this submission before a three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud hearing a batch of petitions seeking to restrain India from deporting 40,000 Rohingyas to Myanmar.
Counsel Prashant Bhushan filed a fresh application for a direction to permit the remaining Rohingya refugees to cross over the border and enter India as the Border Security Force is thwarting their entry. The court asked the Centre to file its response on this application.
At the outset the ASG said, “We do not want India to become the refugee capital of the world. If we allow people from every other country will flood our country. The Centre is in diplomatic talks and it must be allowed to take a decision. There was no contingency and this was not a matter for the court to intervene.”
Senior counsel Gopal Subramanium appearing for the NHRC told the court that he was in agreement with what ASG was saying. But he said that the NHRC was only concerned with the Rohingyas present in the country and had no instructions regarding others.
Justice Chandrachud said the court did acknowledge the humanitarian aspects, but asked if judicial standards, which applied to refugees living on Indian soil, also apply to those attempting to enter the country”.
