Woman deported to Pak. after Pahalgam attack to return home on visitor’s visa

The Centre has informed the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court that it has decided to grant a visitor’s visa to a 62-year-old housewife who was deported to Pakistan post-Pahalgam terror attack. The court said the particular case should not set a precedent in any manner.

The petitioner, Rakshanda Rashid, a Pakistani citizen married to an Indian, had been living in Jammu for the past 38 years on a long-term visa (LTV), which was annually renewed. She had applied for a citizenship in 1996 but the request is yet to be processed.

After the terror attack on April 22, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) cancelled the visas of all Pakistani citizens and asked them to leave the country by April 29. Ms. Rashid was deported despite the MHA directive that Muslim women who are married to Indian citizens and who have applied for LTVs are not required to leave the country. At the time of her deportation, her LTV application was pending with the Ministry.

Solicitor-General (SG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for the MHA, informed the court on July 30 “that after much deliberations and considering the peculiarity of facts and unusual factual position in the matter, an in-principle decision is taken by the authority to grant a visitor’s visa to the respondent.”

Visitor’s visas are only granted to Pakistan nationals to visit relatives or for any other legitimate purpose.

The SG said the respondent could also pursue the two pending applications – to acquire Indian citizenship as also the LTV with the MHA.

The Hindu was the first to report about Ms. Rashid’s case on June 23.

In distress

Ms. Rashid’s daughter, Fatima Sheikh, had told The Hindu that her mother had no relatives in Pakistan, and for the past three months she had been living alone in a small hotel and had run out of money.

Ankur Sharma, Ms. Rashid’s counsel, told The Hindu that they had appealed to the court for a remedy and did not want to take an adversarial position against the government. “The writ petition has been withdrawn and we welcome the court’s order. Ms. Rashid will have to apply for a visa at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad,” Mr. Sharma said.

The woman’s family moved the court in May. On June 6, Judge Rahul Bharti directed the Union Home Secretary to bring back the petitioner from Pakistan in 10 days. On June 29, the MHA appealed against the order stating that “judiciary should not override” the executive’s decision to deport a foreign national. It added that the HC order is constitutionally impermissible and unsustainable, as it directs the enforcement of a judicial writ beyond the sovereign territory of India to Pakistan, where she was deported and was thus ultra vires. The Ministry also said that the court’s direction is “legally unenforceable and diplomatically untenable”.

The July 30 order by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal said, “The Solicitor General of India submits that once an in-principle decision is taken by the competent authority, there is hardly a room for any doubt that post compliance of the requisite procedure and formalities, the authority would not process and accord a visitor’s visa to the respondent at the earliest.”

It added, “We may, however, hasten to clarify that an in-principle decision taken by the authorities centred upon the peculiar facts and circumstances of the present case, shall not constitute a precedent in any manner.”