New Delhi, Oct 24: A day after India's external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj expressed her concern over the growing Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh, a fresh plea was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday favouring the Centre's stand to identify and deport 40,000 "illegal Rohingya Muslims staying in various parts of the country" to their homeland Myanmar.
The latest plea on deportation of Rohingyas is likely to be heard by a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra in November.
The apex court bench is already considering various petitions on Rohingyas, including the lead Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by two Rohingya Muslim refugees, Mohammad Salimullah and Mohammad Shaqir, challenging their deportation.
The SC has already fixed the earlier pleas for detailed hearing from November 21.
The fresh plea has been filed by Binay Kumar Singh, a national executive member of Kisan Morcha of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), T Raja Singh, a BJP member of legislative assembly (MLA) from Goshamahal in Telangana, and Sunil Kumar, an activist.
They have sought impleadment as parties in the ongoing matter and alleged that the illegal Rohingya immigrants are not refugees but should rather be seen as "aggressors/ invaders".
The plea has raised the issue of Rohingyas settled in Jammu and Kashmir saying Article 370 of the Constitution imposed restrictions on Indians but these people have been allowed to stay there.
"If Indians are not allowed to stay in the State of Jammu and Kashmir then even the illegally immigrated Rohingya community cannot be permitted to stay nearby the sensitive Pakistan border," it said.
"No foreign national or power may be permitted to force our hands to let them live here as they like. The (Rohingyas) petition makes an outrageous demand that people who have not obtained refuge, who have not been granted refuge, but are admittedly illegal immigrants be accorded shelter by the nation. It plainly is a blatant disrespect to India's sovereignty...," the plea said.
The Rohingya immigrants, who have filed the PIL, had claimed they had taken refuge in India after escaping from Myanmar due to widespread discrimination, violence and bloodshed against the community there.
Besides the present plea, former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue and Rashtriya Swabhiman Andolan leader KN Govindacharaya has also moved the SC seeking to intervene in the pending PIL on Rohingyas.
The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and the youth wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M) have also moved the court and opposed the Centre's move to deport Rohingyas, saying the deportation of Rohingya children would be in violation of the provisions of the 1989 United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child.
According to an estimate, at least 600,000 Rohingyas have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh since violence broke out in Rakhine State on August 25. Bangladesh has urged Myanmar to take back the Rohingyas and initiate the process of their re-settlement and rehabilitation as it is running out of space, food and water to take care of the unprecedented flow of refugees in the recent times.
OneIndia News
