Supreme Court To Hear Plea Against Alleged Detention Of Rohingya Refugees In Jammu On March 25

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear on March 25 a plea alleging the detention of hundreds of Rohingya refugees in Jammu and the proposal to deport them to Myanmar.

The matter was mentioned before the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde by Advocate Prashant Bhushan.

"The Jammu police have detained several hundreds of Rohinhyas. The Centre is saying that they are going to deport them. First,  the detention is illegal. They are recongizned as refugees under law. And if they are deported to Myanmar, they will be subjected to genocide", Bhushan submitted.

Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, submitted that Bhushan's submissions were "factually wrong".

"Factually everything is wrong... whatever Mr.Bhushan says", the SG said. The SG however said that he was not opposing the listing of the matter next week.

The application was filed in the pending PIL filed by Mohammad Salimullah, a member of Rohingya community, seeking their protection.

"This follows the Union Minister Jitendra Singh's statements two months ago that the Rohingya (identified as Muslim refugees by the government) would not be able to secure citizenship. These refugees have been illegally detained and jailed in the Jammu sub-jail, which has been converted into a holding centre with the IGP (Jammu) Mukesh Singh stating that they face deportation back to Myanmar following verification by their embassy," the application said.

The plea urges the court to "release the detained Rohingya refugees immediately and direct the Union Territory government and the Ministry of Home Affairs to expeditiously grant refugee identification cards through the FRRO for the Rohingyas in the informal camps".