New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to file a comprehensive report with details of the basic amenities being provided to Rohingya refugees by 5 May. These would include details of facilities such as health, sanitation and drinking water being provided to the Rohingyas in different camps across the country.
Rajeev Dhawan, an intervenor in the case, said that the court would first have to decide whether the Rohingyas fell into a special class of people or not. “We are dealing with people who have nowhere to go. They don’t have a work permit, no Aadhaar card and children cannot go to school. This is a group of people who have nobody to turn to for help, worst of the worst,” Dhawan added.
The centre said it could not discriminate between city slum dwellers and the Rohingyas living in the same settlements in provision of facilities and said that it would file a comprehensive report to the court.
This argument was opposed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, one of the petitioners against the proposed deportation, who said that human rights must apply in full vigour as far as provision of basic amenities was concerned and that this must be in line with Article 21 (right to life) under the Constitution. “The more vulnerable you are, the more protection you need,” Upadhyay said.
The centre had told the top court on 31 January that the issue regarding deportation of Rohingyas to Myanmar was better left to be decided by the executive.
Additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta said it could not allow the country to be flooded—by allowing anybody to enter it and become a refugee capital. “Don’t want India to become a refugee capital,” Mehta remarked.