Supreme Court refuses to pass interim order on plea of Rohingya refugees for better health, education facilities

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today refused to pass any interim order on a plea filed by two Rohingya refugees to ensure health and educational facilities for them.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud was told by the Centre that there was no discrimination in granting health and educational facilities to Indians and outsiders.

"We will not pass any interim order with regard to ensuring health and educational facilities for Rohingya refugees unless petitioners bring some material contradicting the claims of the Centre," the bench said.

Earlier in the day, the apex court had directed the Centre to file a "comprehensive status report" giving details of conditions in Rohingya refugee camps in various states.

The apex court had on March 7 sought the Centre's response on a plea of two Rohingya refugees -- Mohammad Salimullah and Mohammad Shaqir -- seeking education and healthcare on the lines of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who are given such facilities in Tamil Nadu.

However, the Centre in its affidavit had opposed the plea saying that the comparison with Sri Lankan refugees was "ill-founded and misconceived".

It said certain relief facilities to the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees had its genesis in the Indo-Ceylon Agreement of 1964.

The Rohingya refugees have sought permission to enter India, besides education and health care facilities and grant of refugee ID cards by the Foreigner Regional Registration Office.

They had earlier approached the apex court opposing the Centre's decision to deport over 40,000 refugees who came to India after escaping from Myanmar due to widespread discrimination and violence against the community.

Various other pleas, including those by former RSS ideologue and Rashtriya Swabhiman Andolan leader K N Govindacharya, the CPI(M) youth wing Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and the West Bengal child rights body have been filed in the apex court on the matter.

The court had suggested to the Centre not to deport these refugees, but the Centre had urged that it should not be written in the order as anything coming on record would have international ramifications.

The Rohingya people, who fled to India after violence in the Western Rakhine State of Myanmar, are settled in Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan.