Refusing to grant any relief to a Sri Lankan national facing possible deportation, the Supreme Court said Monday that India, which is “struggling with a 140 crore population…is not a dharmshala”.
A two-judge bench was hearing a plea by a Sri Lankan national against a Madras High Court order, which asked him to leave India upon completion of a seven-year sentence imposed on him under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
“Is India to host refugees from all over the world? We are struggling with 140 crore. This is not a dharmshala that we can entertain foreign nationals from all over,” Justice Dipankar Datta, presiding over the bench, remarked orally.
The petitioner’s counsel informed the bench — also comprising Justice Vinod Chandran — that he was a Tamil, and faced threats to his life as he had fought for the in the island nation. The counsel said he will be arrested and subjected to torture if he goes back to .
To Justice Datta’s query as to what right he has to be settled in India, the petitioner said his wife and children too were settled in India and that he was a refugee.
The counsel contended that the petitioner was under detention for about three years without any deportation process, as the court said there was no violation of any fundamental right, and the detention was in accordance with the procedure established by law.
The Supreme Court also suggested that the petitioner could consider moving to another country if he cannot go back to Sri Lanka, as he has claimed.
