The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to examine the case of a 14-year-old Rohingya girl facing deportation from India to Myanmar.
A Bench led by Justice S. Abdul Nazeer issued notice to the government and asked the petitioner NGO, Global Peace Initiative, represented by senior advocate Sanjay Hegde and advocates Sriram P. and M.S. Vishnu Shankar, to implead the State of Assam. The girl is at an orphanage in Assam while her parents are in a camp in Bangladesh.
The petition said the girl’s father had written to the UNHRC in October 2019 to know the whereabouts of his daughter.
The petition said everybody, including non-citizens, had the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. The right to life and liberty of a child and the right of the parents to see their daughter were at stake here, it submitted.
The NGO urged the court to not close the door on the girl, leaving her to be deported to Myanmar where atrocities are reported to have been committed against members of the Rohingya community.
The petitioner even offered to host the girl in one of its own facilities before sending her to her parents in Bangladesh.
