Our Correspondent / New Delhi
The Supreme Court of India is likely to hear on Monday (September 4) a plea seeking to restrain the government from deporting 40,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees back to Myanmar.
Rohingya Muslim refugees have taken shelter in India and in Bangladesh to escape widespread violence against them by Myanmar authorities.
The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M.Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y.Chandrachud agreed to hear the plea on Monday after counsel Prashant Bhushan mentioned the matter for an early hearing.
Bhushan said that the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC too had taken note of the Rohingya refugees and sought the Union Home Ministry report.
Taking suo motu cognizance of the media reports regarding the government’s plan, the NHRC had on August 18 observed that “refugees are no doubt foreign nationals but they are human beings and before taking a big step, the Government of India has to look into every aspect of the situation.”
File photo
The NHRC had observed that the Supreme Court has consistently held that the Fundamental Right enshrined under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution regarding Right to Life and Personal Liberty, applies to all, irrespective of the fact whether they are citizens of India or not.
Referring to the international convention on human rights and the other world bodies including UNHCR, Bhushan said that refugees can’t be expelled back if they face certain death or torture back home.
The Rohingya immigrants, who fled to India after violence in the Western Rakhine State of Myanmar, have settled in Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan.
3,000 Muslims killed in Myanmar in 3 days: European Rohingya Council
The European Rohingya Council has said that between 2,000 and 3,000 Muslims were killed in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in last three days.
Council spokeswoman Anita Schug told media that 2,000-to-3,000 Muslims had died in Rakhine state, and thousands other had been injured in what she described as a “slow-burning genocide”.
“It [the situation in Rakhine] is an ongoing slow-burning genocide,” Schug said, accusing Myanmar’s military of being behind the deaths.
She said almost a thousand Muslims were killed on Sunday in Saugpara village, Rathedaung alone.
More than a 100,000 civilians have been displaced in Rakhine, while another 2,000 Muslims are trapped on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border which was closed by the Bangladeshi government, Schug added.
She also said a hundred villagers from Auk Nan Yar were taken to an unknown location on Wednesday, adding there were concerns for their safety.
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