SC orders safe entry and medical assistance for Sunali Khatun, who was deported despite living in Delhi’s Rohini area for over two decades.
Centre says the relief is granted purely on humanitarian grounds and maintains the family are Bangladeshi nationals.
Senior lawyers urge the Court to help reunite other family members still stranded in Bangladesh as allegations of wrongful deportation intensify.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday offered rare relief to a pregnant woman and her eight-year-old child, permitting them to re-enter India months after they were forcibly sent across the border into Bangladesh.
A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, along with Justice Joymalya Bagchi, directed the West Bengal government to ensure the child’s wellbeing and asked the Chief Medical Officer of Birbhum district to extend full medical care to the woman, Sunali Khatun, as she continues her pregnancy. PTI reported.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, informed the court that authorities had agreed to allow Sunali and her child back into the country solely on humanitarian grounds. He added that the two would remain under official surveillance once admitted. The Court noted that they would eventually be taken to Delhi — the city from where they were picked up before being sent to Bangladesh.
During the hearing, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Sanjay Hegde highlighted that other members of the family, including Sunali’s husband, are still stranded in Bangladesh and urged the court to facilitate their return as well. Mehta, however, said he would contest their claim of Indian citizenship, maintaining that the family are Bangladeshi nationals, and reiterated that the present relief extended only to Sunali and her child, according to PTI.
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According to Sunali’s father, the family had lived and worked as daily wage labourers in Delhi’s Rohini Sector 26 for over twenty years. He alleged that on June 18, police detained several members of the family on suspicion of being Bangladeshi immigrants and, nine days later, on June 27, pushed them across the border — a move that left the family fractured and desperate.
(With inputs from PTI)
