Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 24: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has directed the Union Government to bring back a woman, who was recently deported to Pakistan.
After hearing Advocate Himani Khajuria for the petitioner whereas DSGI Vishal Sharma for the UT, Justice Rahul Bharti ordered: “Needful compliance to be carried out within a period of 10 days from the date of passing of this order”.
In the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack in April, the Union Government decided to suspend visa services to Pakistani nationals and directed them to leave India. After the deadline ended on April 27, the authorities deported several Pakistani nationals.
Rakshanda Rashid was one among those deported by India. According to media reports, she had been living in Jammu for the past 38 years with her husband and two children, and at present is stuck at a hotel in Lahore. She approached the High Court in April against her deportation. She was deported on April 30, the day her case was listed for first hearing.
Justice Rahul Bharti noted her husband’s submission that she has no one in Pakistan and suffers from multiple ailments due to which her life remains at risk with each passing day. Considering that it was yet to hear Rashid’s case on merits, the court observed that sometimes a constitutional court is required to intervene on humanitarian grounds.
“Human rights are the most sacrosanct component of a human life and, therefore, there are occasions when a constitutional court is supposed to come up with SOS like indulgence notwithstanding the merits and demerits of a case which can be adjudicated only upon in due course of time and therefore, this court is coming up with a direction to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India to bring back the petitioner from her deportation”, Justice Bharti directed.
The court also took into account the fact that she was living in India under a Long Term Visa (LTV). It remarked that her LTV status per se may not have warranted her deportation.
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