SC asks Centre to reply to UN official’s plea on Rohingya

The application has detailed annexures on the UN’s findings on Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya.

A scene at Rohingya Refugees in Foreign Land at Kalinidi Kunj in Delhi.

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to respond to an application made by a United Nations Special Rapporteur to intervene in a batch of petitions filed by the Rohingya community against the government’s move to conduct their mass deportation from India.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde took note of the plea made by E. Tendayi Achiume, who is a UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, to assist the court on India’s human rights obligations to racial equality and non-discrimination in the light of the international conventions signed and ratified by it. It said the move by the Union Home Ministry would be ‘incompatible’ with India's human rights obligations.

“The objective in making this intervention is to assist the court by offering expertise on State parties’ obligations under international law with regard to the prevention of racial discrimination against migrants, racial, ethnic and religious minorities, and populations otherwise perceived as ‘foreign.’ It is also to aid the court in upholding India’s obligations, in the spirit of an amicus curiae,” the application, represented by senior advocate C.U. Singh, explained.

The application has detailed annexures on the UN’s findings on Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya.