Fresh plea in SC favouring Centre’s stand on Rohingyas

NEW DELHI: A fresh plea was today filed in the Supreme Court favouring the Centre’s stand to identify and deport to Myanmar around 40,000 illegal Rohingya Muslims staying in the country.

The plea may be heard by a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra which is already considering various petitions, including the lead PIL filed by two Rohingya Muslim refugees, Mohammad Salimullah and Mohammad Shaqir, challenging their deportation.

The Apex Court has already fixed the earlier pleas for detailed hearing from November 21.

The latest plea has been filed by Binay Kumar Singh, a national executive member of BJP’s Kisan Morcha, T Raja Singh, a BJP MLA from Goshamahal in Telangana and Sunil Kumar, who claims to be an activist.

They have sought impleadment as parties in the ongoing matter and alleged that the illegal Rohingya immigrants are not refugees but should rather be seen as “aggressors/ invaders”.

The plea has raised the issue of Rohingyas settled in Jammu and Kashmir saying Article 370 of the Constitution imposed restrictions on Indians but these people have been allowed to stay there.

“If Indians are not allowed to stay in the State of Jammu and Kashmir then even the illegally immigrated Rohingya community cannot be permitted to stay nearby the sensitive Pakistan border,” it said. (AGENCIES)