Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the State government to release five Rohingya (who are Myanmar nationals) who were detained in Cherlapally central prison immediately, observing that the State government had no power to detain them.
Pronouncing judgment in a batch of five writ petitions filed by relatives/families of Rohingya, a bench of Justices Shameem Akther and E.V. Venugopal set aside orders issued by DGP M. Mahender Reddy detaining the five Rohingya. Their detention is “wholly unjustified, ex facie illegal and without specific delegation of power under section 3 (2) (g) of the Foreigners Act”, the bench said.
Hyderabad police arrested five Myanmar nationals, Raheemullah, Jaffar Alam, Abdul Aziz, Noor Qasim and Nazar-Ul-Islam, in 2020 on charge of securing crucial identity documents like Aadhaar card and Elector Photo Identity Card by furnishing fake certificates. Different sections of Indian Penal Code, the Passport Act and the Foreigners Act were invoked against them.
Eventually, they secured conditional bail from the trial court concerned. However, the DGP secured orders from the State government to detain them in Cherlapally Central Prison (where they were already lodged) till the cases against them were taken to logical end. If they are acquitted of the charges, their detention should continue till they were deported to Myanmar, as per the State government order.
The detained foreigners moved the HC stating that they were living peacefully living in India on the status of ‘refugee’. “They are not to be treated on par with other foreigners” who visit India for tourism or economic prospects, their counsel contended.
The condition of Rohingya in Myanmar was not conducive for safe deportation of the detained persons. If the government deports them, it would amount to serious violation of human rights, their lawyers argued. The government pleader contended that the five Rohingya were detained to ensure they did not further involve in any offence. They were detained in compliance with provisions of section 3 (2) (e) of the Foreigners Act, he said.
The bench said that the State government had no power under the Foreigners Act to detain the foreigners. The power vested with the Central government. The Union of India did not delegate this power to confine foreigners to the State government, the judgment said.
