E-Paper
No action taken on Rohingya, no deportation planned: Karnataka govt tells SC
The Basavaraj Bommai-government has also pressed for dismissal of the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, asking for directions to the Centre and states to identify, detain and deport all illegal immigrants
The Karnataka governmenton Mondaytold the Supreme Court that it has not taken any action against the six dozen Rohingya refugees identified by the police, nor does it have any plan to deport them.
“Bengaluru city police have not housed Rohingyas in any camp or detention centre within its jurisdiction. However, 72 Rohingyas identified in Bengaluru city are working in various fields and Bengaluru city police have not taken any coercive action against them as of now and there is no immediate plan of deporting them,” read the statement of objection filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government.
The Basavaraj Bommai-government has also pressed for dismissal of the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, who is also associated with BJP and has been a former spokesperson for the party in Delhi. Upadhyay, in his 2017 plea, asked for directions to the Centre and states to identify, detain and deport all illegal immigrants, including Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshis.
According to the state government, Upadhyay’s petition is liable to be dismissed, for it is “devoid of merit” and is also “untenable in law”.
Interestingly, the BJP-led Karnataka government’s response on the issue is in sharp contrast to what the BJP-headed Central government has been submitting in the Supreme Court in a clutch of cases related to deportation of Rohingya refugees.
In March this year, in a separate batch of cases, where some of the Rohingya refugees sought protection from deportation and also their release from detention centres, the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) asserted that India cannot become “the international capital of illegal immigrants” while terming the Rohingya “absolutely illegal immigrants” who posed “serious threats to the national security”.
While the Karnataka government has said in its latest statement that it has not put any Rohingya refugee in a camp or a detention centre, the Union government has consistently opposed tooth and nail all pleas for release of Rohingya refugees detained in Assam, Jammu or in any other part of the country.
In April this year, the Supreme Court had refused to stop the deportation of at least 150 Rohingya refugees detained in a Jammu prison to Myanmar in the wake of Centre’s submissions that Rohingyas cannot press for a fundamental right not to be deported and rather settle in India since right to residence is reserved only to the citizens of the country.
The Centre’s affidavit filed in the apex court in March, seen by HT, had maintained that it has to first secure the interests of its own citizens before those of illegal immigrants who, it said, were casting a burden on the already depleting natural resources of the country in addition to posing a security threat.
Following the Union government’s submissions advanced through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the Supreme Court on April 8 dismissed a plea to stop their deportation or release them from the detention centre.
A similar stand was taken by the Union government in 2018 when the issue of detention and deportation of some Rohingya refugees from Assam had cropped up. The MHA had then submitted in the court that illegal immigrants had to be suspended out of the territory of India in national interest and that due process is being followed in deporting Rohingya refugees.
In October 2018, the Supreme Court dismissed the plea to stop their deportation after taking on record the Centre’s stand.
