NEW DELHI, Apr 7: The Supreme Court will pronounce order tomorrow on a plea seeking immediate release of detained Rohingya refugees in Jammu and direction to restrain the Centre from deporting them to Myanmar.
A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian will pronounce its order on the interim plea moved by a Rohingya refugee Mohd Salimullah in the pending matter.
On March 26, the top court had reserved its verdict on the plea.
The Centre had opposed the plea saying that the country cannot be the “capital” for illegal immigrants.
During the arguments, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, said Rohingya children were subjected to killing, maiming and sexual exploitation and Military in Myanmar has failed to respect international humanitarian law.
The Centre had contended that they are not refugees at all and this is the second round of litigation as the top court had earlier dismissed an application filed by the petitioner.
“There was a similar application for Assam earlier. They (petitioners) wanted that no Rohingya be deported, we had said that we will follow the law. They are illegal immigrants. We are always in touch with Myanmar and when they confirm that the individual is their citizen, then only deportation can take place,” the Centre had said.
Bhushan had alleged that Jammu and Kashmir administration has detained Rohingyas in Jammu, who have refugee cards and they will soon be deported.
On March 11, an interim plea was filed in a pending PIL seeking immediate release of detained Rohingya refugees in Jammu.
The plea also sought direction to Ministry of Home Affairs to expeditiously grant refugee identification cards through the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) for Rohingyas in informal camps.
The application, filed by Mohammad Salimullah, a Rohingya refugee, has said that it is filed in public interest in order to secure and protect the right against deportation of refugees in India.
The plea said that it is filed to protect rights guaranteed under Article 14 and Article 21, read with Article 51(c) of the Constitution, against the deportation of Rohingya refugees who have taken refuge in India after escaping widespread violence and discrimination against their community in Myanmar.
“Release the detained Rohingya refugees immediately and direct the Union Territory Government and the Ministry of Home Affairs to expeditiously grant Refugee identification cards through the FRRO for Rohingyas in informal camps,” it said.
It sought direction to the Union Government to refrain from implementing any orders on deporting Rohingya refugees, who have been detained in the sub jail in Jammu.
Violent attacks allegedly by Myanmar army 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. (PTI)
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