No Plan To Deport Rohingyas: Karnataka Govt Tells Supreme Court In A PIL Seeking Deportation of Rohingya Refugees

Background of the matter

The Writ Petition-Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v Union of India & Ors-has sought a direction to the Central and state governments to identify, detain and deport all illegal immigrants and infiltrators including Rohingya refugees, direction to government authorities to amend the respective laws to make illegal migration and infiltration, a cognizable non-bailable and non-compoundable offence; direct the Central and state government to declare the making of forged/fabricated PAN Cards, Aadhaar Card and other such documents a non-bailable and non-compoundable offence.

In March 2021 a Bench of justices CJI SA Bobde, AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian had issued notice on the said matter.

Karnataka Government: Statement of Objections

The Karnataka government's statement of objections claims that Bengaluru City Police have not housed Rohingyas in any camp or detention centre within its jurisdiction. Further, it claims that "72 Rohingyas identified in the Bengaluru City are working in various fields and Bengaluru City police have not taken coercive action against them as of now and there is no immediate plan of deporting them."

The statement gives details of the 72 Rohingya refugees identified as living within its jurisdiction. It also submits that the grounds raised by the petitioner are self-serving in nature and untenable in law and thus liable to be dismissed in the interest of justice.

The Statement of Objection has been filed by Adv. V.N.Raghupathy