On 24 December, the Calcutta High Court stayed the deportation of Rohingya Couple who were about to be exiled back to Myanmar, by the Indian authorities. According to the sources, the couple had illegally entered India in 2017.
The bench headed by Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya issued a stay order over the deportation and also a notice to the Bengal Government to provide basic amenities to the couple to help them “live a life with dignity.” The court held that protection is being granted to ‘uphold the spirit of humanity.’
The petitioners Abdur Sukur and Anowara Begum stated in their writ petition that they belong to the ‘Rohingya’ community and are state-less as Myanmar has disowned them. They pleaded that they were about to be deported back to Myanmar by the Indian authorities and that such deportation would amount to death sentence against them.
Around 40,000 Rohingya community refugees, who faced persecution in Myanmar, have been residing in India. A writ petition challenging the Centre’s decision to deport 40,000 Rohingya Muslims, who have illegally entered India was pending in the Supreme Court since 2017.
Justice Bhattacharyya passed an order stating that “Given the imminent plight of the petitioners, who, despite having basic human rights in consonance with the Fundamental Rights provided by the Constitution of India as well as the U.N. Charter and the norms of any civilized society, a minimum protection ought to be given to the petitioners till the writ petition is decided, to uphold the spirit of humanity, if not the Fundamental Rights enshrined in the Constitution of India, which is the grundnorm of all Indian statues.”
The next hearing of the matter has been scheduled to hear on 20 January
