Local authorities are excluding Rohingya children because they do not have the Aadhaar identification code, the biometric identification system reserved for Indian citizens, explained an NGO that filed the litigation. The Delhi court refused to hear the suit, saying it was a political matter that should be dealt with by the Home Ministry.
New Delhi () – The Delhi High Court has refused to examine a lawsuit seeking admission into local schools of Rohingya children from Myanmar who, as refugees, have not received the Aadhaar card, the biometric identification system reserved for Indian citizens.
Yesterday, October 29, the capital court dismissed the public interest litigation, declaring that the matter falls under the jurisdiction of the central government. The panel of judges declared that this is an “international issue” with implications related to national security, so the Ministry of the Interior must deal with it. There are many aspects at play. We cannot intervene,’ said the judges, who asked that the petition be processed as soon as possible.
The litigation had been filed by the NGO Social Jurist, according to which the municipal administration (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) is refusing to admit 17 Rohingya children residing in the Khajoori Chowk area to school because they do not have the Aadhaar identification code. 12 digits. In India, registration in the system is voluntary and the Supreme Court clarified last year that the government cannot deny a service if someone is not in possession of the identification card.
According to lawyer Ashok Agarwal, who represents Social Jurist, the right of Rohingya children to study in local schools is guaranteed by several articles of the Indian Constitution (in which “children” are mentioned in a generic sense, not only to Indian children, the lawyer argued) and by the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2009.
For the High Court, however, “the Rohingya are foreigners” who have not been “officially and legally authorized to enter India.” The country is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and lacks a national refugee protection framework, but allows the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to operate on its territory. The Rohingya are one of the minorities in Myanmar, where a civil conflict has been going on for more than three years, and are mostly of the Islamic faith.
In July of this year, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on India to end arbitrary detention and deportation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, where they risk suffering “serious human rights violations.” According to data dating back to 2019, there are an estimated 40,000 Rohingya refugees in India, of which around 22,000 are registered with UNHCR. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party from which Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes to power, discrimination and calls for expulsion have increased, according to civil society organizations.
According to the panel of judges, allowing schooling for the Rohingya would be equivalent to allowing foreigners access to the national education system, a matter that cannot be authorized by the court. “This is a matter of policy,” the court noted. “We let the Government make a political decision, it is not our responsibility,” since it is a question of citizenship. «We are not responsible for everyone. Then they will ask us to open schools in Africa too. Let us not get carried away,” the judges added, also citing a law from the state of Assam that provides the expulsion of foreigners through special courts. «And you are making it easier for them? Tomorrow there will be a situation in which they will have to be deported. We can’t get into that. We leave it to the government to take a decision in this regard,” the court reiterated.
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