Jammu Tawi, July 03:
A division bench of the Jammu Kashmir & Ladakh High Court, presided by chief justice Arun Palli, on Wednesday stayed a repatriation order passed by a single judge bench on June 6 pertaining to a 63-year-old Pakistani woman, Rakshanda Rashid. Hailing from Lahore, Rakshanda Rashid claimed to have married a Jammu man 38 years ago and had been living here since then. She was deported to Pakistan following India’s punitive measures against Pakistan after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that brazenly killed 26 tourists and a local ponnywala.
The single bench order issued by Justice Rahul Bharti on June 6 had issued directions to the Union ministry of Home Affairs to bring her back.
Consequent to the single bench order, the J&K Union Territory and MHA had filed a letters patent appeal (LPA) titled Union of India vs Rakshanda Rashid challenging the single-judge’s order dated June 6.
The single bench order had described the deportation of the old woman as “lacking due process and violative of the petitioner’s human rights”.
However, the division bench has admitted the LPA for hearing and has granted an interim stay on the implementation of the single judge order. The case will be heard on July 10, he informed.
The petitioner’s counsel said that she had married an Indian citizen, was on a long term visa to India, which was being renewed annually. She had applied for it in January this year as well but then the Pahalgam attack happened.
He informed that his client had also applied for Indian citizenship in 1996, which was still pending with the authorities concerned.
However, the home ministry, in its appeal stated that Rakshanda Rashid’s long term visa had expired, and she had no valid paper to support her continued stay in India. It also cited national security concerns in the wake of the Pahalgam attack. The old woman was deported on April 30.
