On Thursday, a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court suspended the West Bengal Correctional Services Department’s order to deport four Rohingya illegal immigrants to Myanmar with immediate effect. The court has asked the government not to deport the Rohingyas till their plea is heard on the 10th of August. The 4 illegal Rohingya Muslim women and their 13 children were arrested while trying to infiltrate India from Bangladesh. They were sentenced by the trial court in the same year.
The single-judge bench of Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya also ordered the state correctional services administration to provide the 4 Rohingya Muslim convicts with the necessary necessities.
According to the reports, the four Rohingyas are at present incarcerated at the Dum Dum Central Correctional Home in Kolkata’s northern suburbs. The 4 Rohingya women completed their sentence in 2019 and are now detained at the Correctional Home. The illegal Rohingya convicts had approached the court on the 31st of January. They had said that they do not want to be deported to Myanmar as they fear for their lives. Reportedly, they also said that their children are lodged in children’s homes across West Bengal.
The correctional home officials recently notified them that they would have to return to Myanmar on August 5th. In this regard, the Rohingya illegal immigrants on Thursday moved an urgent plea in front of Justice Bhattacharya’s bench. Justice Bhattacharya questioned the attorneys of both the Union and State governments if there was any explicit instruction on this matter.
Both Dhiraj Trivedi, the Union government’s attorney, and Anirban Roy, the state government’s counsel, stated that they were unaware of any such order. Following that, Justice Bhattacharya ruled that the four convicts could not be sent to Myanmar under the prevailing circumstances till their plea was heard. She further directed the Dum Dum Central Correctional Home administrators to provide for their basic living necessities until the issue of their repatriation is eventually resolved.
The case will be heard on August 10, 2022. Justice Bhattacharya directed the petitioners’ counsel to submit all relevant documents in the form of an affidavit by that date.
