Supreme Court on Tuesday disposed of a plea seeking evacuation of Indian migrants stranded at the India-Nepal border in Uttarakhand as the government submitted that all, “Indians in various countries will be brought back.”
Appearing for the petitioner(s) Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves submitted that,
“1000 nepali workers had to go back to Nepal. A large number have been sent back. The remaining problem is 214 have not been sent back from champawar, loharghat and bhanu bazaar. Government must know that in these places workers are still stranded”
Gonsalves further emphasised on the “second issue”, i.e. of “1000 Indians stranded in Nepal in precarious situation. Government has issued a notification yesterday that they will bring back indians stranded abroad.”
In this backdrop, a bench comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul & BR Gavai heard the Centre’s stand that all Indians stranded in various countries would be brought back via chartered flights from May 7.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated, “all Indians stranded in various countries could be brought back in special chartered flights, these Indians in Nepal would also be brought back”
The Government of India had stated on Monday that it will facilitate the return of Indian nationals stranded abroad in a phased manner through aircraft and naval ships.
On April 30, the Supreme Court had asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to get instructions on the stand of the Centre in the aforementioned petition seeking safe passage of these workers to Nepal.
The petitioner Ganga Giri Goswami had filed the plea in the apex court challenging the April 20 order of the Uttarakhand High Court which had observed, “no direction can be issued to the central government to expedite repatriation of the Nepali citizens through diplomatic channels, as issuance of such a direction would amount to encroachment in the field reserved for the Union Government”.
