The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is likely to appeal a recent High Court order from Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, which instructed the government to bring back a 63-year-old housewife who was deported to Pakistan. This deportation happened after a crackdown on Pakistani nationals following the Pahalgam terror attack.
A government source said they plan to challenge the court’s decision soon in a higher court. Judge Rahul Bharti had ordered the Union Home Secretary to “retrieve” Rakshanda Rashid from Pakistan because of the unusual circumstances in her case.
Ms. Rashid had been living in Jammu with her husband and two children for 38 years before she was deported through the Attari border checkpoint on April 30. Her family approached the High Court, which ordered on June 6 that she should be brought back within 10 days.
Ankur Sharma, the lawyer representing Ms. Rashid, told the news agency that the government might challenge the order at the High Court’s Division Bench, and they are ready to file a caveat. This means they want to make sure they get notified if the government appeals, so they can defend her case.
Ms. Rashid is currently staying in a hotel in Lahore with very little money and no close family there. Her daughter said Ms. Rashid was on a long-term visa in India and had applied for Indian citizenship back in 1996, but it was never processed.
After the terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22, which killed 26 people, the MHA cancelled visas for all Pakistani citizens and ordered them to leave India by April 29. Though the order excluded those on long-term visas and Pakistani women married to Indian citizens, Ms. Rashid was still picked up by Jammu and Kashmir police and sent back to Pakistan, her lawyer said.
In his order, Judge Bharti emphasized the importance of human rights, saying courts sometimes need to act urgently, regardless of the legal details, to protect basic human dignity. That’s why he directed the Home Ministry to bring her back.
