Supreme Court irked by repeated PILs to stop Rohingya deportation

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday was irked by successive attempts through

PIL

to stop alleged deportation of Rohingya Muslims within a fortnight and told senior advocate

Colin Gonsalves

that he can’t be filing PIL after PIL on the same issue without any new fact to seek modification of SC’s May 8 decision refusing relief.On May 8, a bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and N Kotiswar Singh had refused to grant interim stay on apprehended deportation of Rohingyas despite spirited arguments from Gonsalves and Prashant Bhushan. The bench had said Rohingyas, who are not Indian citizens, do not have a right to reside anywhere in the country.Solicitor general

Tushar Mehta

had said India is not a signatory to the

UN Convention on Refugees

and disputed validity of UNHCR granting

refugee status

to Rohingyas, who are from

Myanmar

and had fled to other countries because of serious threat to their lives from the military.On Friday, Gonsalves said on May 8 itself the Union govt had deported 28 Rohingyas, who were handcuffed and taken to Andaman Island, given life jackets and pushed towards Myanmar. After somehow reaching Myanmar, they took help of fishermen to make phone calls to their relatives in Delhi to inform them that they faced imminent threats to their lives.

The bench of Justices Kant and Singh said these are bald averments and who is there to verify these facts are true to his knowledge. “When the country is facing such a situation at present, you cannot come up with fanciful PILs like this. There is no material to support vague and sweeping allegations made in the petition. Unless the petitioner provides prima facie credible material, it is difficult to pass an interim order which is contrary to the one refused on May 8 by a 3-J bench.”Gonsalves cited a SC judgement on protection of

Chakma refugees

to seek similar relief for Rohingyas. He also cited a UN Report as well as an order of the International Court of Justice to claim that Rohingyas are not migrants but refugees whose protection of lives is mandated by the UN.The bench said, “We do not want to comment on the UN Report today. We will give an answer to that on July 31, when this petition along with the pending one would be taken up for hearing.” Gonsalves said this would allow govt to deport more Rohingyas, whose number exceed 8,000 in different parts of the country and 800 of them are in Delhi.