The Supreme Court of India on Friday directed the central government to reply to the plea made by a United Nations Special Human Rights Council Rapporteur that sought intervention in the group of petitions filed by the members of Rohingya community against the central government’s move to organise their mass deportation from India.
The court headed by CJI Sharad A. Bobde took cognisance of the plea made by E. Tendayi Achiume, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, who assists the top court on country’s human rights commitments to racial equality and non-discrimination bearing in mind the international agreements signed and ratified by it.
Citing the ongoing turmoil over the CAA and NRC across the country, the UN Rapporteur, in her application, has termed the expatriation of the illegal Rohingya immigrants as “impermissible under international human rights law”, claiming that it is India’s responsibility to treat Rohingya with “equality before the law and provide them equal access to judicial remedies and individualised form of due process”.
Senior advocate CU Singh, who is the counsel for the intervenor argued that the intervention attempts to bring to notice of the court the findings of the United Nations on Myanmar’s treatment of Rohingya Muslims and cited UN’s report to assert that the Myanmar government perpetrated crimes against humanity.
Highlighting India’s obligation to the International convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Singh stated that India is obligated to respect and uphold racial equality and the right to be free from racial discrimination.
”The main objective of making this application is to help the court by providing expertise on State’s obligations under international law apropos the prevention of racial discrimination against migrants, racial, ethnic and religious minorities, and populations otherwise considered ‘foreign’,” the plea filed by CU Singh read.
Representing the petitioners in the deportation matter, Advocate Prashant Bhushan has called upon the top court to decide on the issue of the expatriation of Rohingya expeditiously.
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah had already made it amply clear that every illegal immigrant in the country will be identified and deported back to his/her home country as per the International law. Shah had asserted that the illegal immigrants of Rohingya community pose a security threat for the country and it is in the best interest of the nation to deport them back to Myanmar through available international mechanism.