J&K High Court directs Centre to repatriate woman deported to Pakistan after Pahalgam attack

Srinagar, June 24: The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to bring back Rakshanda Rashid, a Pakistani national who was deported to Pakistan in April following the terror attack in Pahalgam. 

The Court issued the order on humanitarian grounds, noting that her deportation was carried out without properly examining her case.

Rakshanda, who had been living in Jammu for the past 38 years with her husband and two children, was among several Pakistani nationals asked to leave India after the Union government suspended visa services for Pakistani citizens in the wake of the April attack. She was deported on April 30, the same day her plea challenging the deportation was scheduled for hearing.

In an order dated June 6, Justice Rahul Bharti observed that Rashid had no immediate family in Pakistan, suffered from multiple health conditions, and was now stranded in a Lahore hotel. The Court noted that she had been living in India on a Long Term Visa (LTV), which did not automatically warrant deportation, reported Bar and Bench.

“Human rights are the most sacrosanct component of human life… there are occasions when a constitutional court is supposed to come up with SOS-like indulgence,” the Court said, while directing the Union Home Ministry to retrieve the woman and facilitate her reunion with her husband in Jammu.

The Court further pointed out that her deportation took place without a detailed hearing or a formal deportation order, and stressed that her case should have been considered on merit before taking such an extreme step.

The Centre has been given 10 days to implement the directive, with the next hearing scheduled for July 1 to review the compliance report.