New Delhi: The Centre on Monday refused to give any undertaking in the Supreme Court that it would not deport 40,000 Rohingya Muslims, who had taken refuge in India, to Myanmar on the ground that they are illegal immigrants.
Supreme Court seeks Centre’s stand on Rohingyas deportation
The Supreme Court on Monday sought to know the stand of the government on a petition challenging its decision to deport illegal Rohingya Muslim immigrants back to Myanmar.
The matter came up before a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud which asked Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to take instruction from the Centre about its response to the petition which has challenged the decision on various grounds including that it violated international human right conventions.
While the bench posted the matter for September 11, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the two Rohingya immigrants, wanted an assurance that during the pendency of the petition, the Centre will not take any step including deportation of the immigrants.
The ASG made it clear that he was not making any statement. Violent attacks allegedly by Myanmarese armymen have led to an exodus of Rohingya tribals from the western Rakhine state in that country to India and Bangladesh. Many of them, who had fled to India after the earlier spate of violence, have settled in Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan.
The plea, filed by two Rohingya immigrants, Mohammad Salimullah and Mohammad Shaqir, who are registered refugees under the United Nations High Commission of Refugees.
