Identify illegal immigrants from Myanmar, Bangladesh in J&K within 6 weeks: HC

The court directions came on a PIL filed by lawyer Hunar Gupta, who sought directions to the J&K government for appointing a former retired judge to hold an inquiry to identify all the illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, who have migrated and settled in J&K

JAMMU : The J&K high court has directed the home secretary of the union territory RK Goyal to evolve a mechanism for the identification of all illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh and to prepare a list after identifying them.

The J&K high court has directed the home secretary of the union territory RK Goyal to evolve a mechanism for the identification of all illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh and to prepare a list after identifying them.

The court directions came on a PIL filed by lawyer Hunar Gupta, who sought directions to the J&K government for appointing a former retired judge to hold an inquiry to identify all the illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, who have migrated and settled in J&K.

A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi, after hearing senior advocate Sunil Sethi for the PIL and advocate general DC Raina with AAG Raman Sharma for the UT, directed the home secretary to consider the matter and to evolve a mechanism for the identification of all illegal immigrants.

The entire “exercise may be carried out, most promptly, within a period of six weeks,” the court said.

The petitioner also sought direction for withdrawal of all benefits given to the illegal immigrants of Bangladeshi and Myanmar from the state exchequer and from the scheme and benefits meant for residents of J&K.

As per the government version, 13,400 illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh were living in various areas of J&K.

The petitioner submitted that the actual figures were much more than the official figures. It was submitted that in 1982 the Myanmar Government declared Rohingya Muslims as non-national which led to their migration to neighbouring Bangladesh, Thailand and even Pakistan.