SC Halts Deportation of Family with Indian Documents Amid Visa Crackdown

NEW DELHI:
In a significant intervention, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed the deportation of a family facing removal to Pakistan, following their claim of holding valid Indian documents including passports and Aadhaar cards.

The top court’s decision comes amidst a sweeping move by the Union government to revoke all valid visas issued to Pakistani nationals starting April 27, in response to the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. All states and Union Territories were directed to initiate immediate deportations.

The family in question, originally from Mirpur and settled in Srinagar since 1997, moved the Supreme Court with a writ petition asserting their Indian citizenship. The lead petitioner, an MBA graduate from IIM Kerala currently employed in Bengaluru, stated that his parents and three sisters were detained by the J&K Police on the night of April 29.

According to the plea, the family was taken to the Indo-Pak border near Jammu on April 30 around noon, and authorities were allegedly pressuring them to cross over despite their Indian identity claims.

Acting on the matter, a bench comprising justices Surya Kant and N K Singh granted interim relief, directing authorities not to take any coercive action against the petitioners until verification of their documents is completed.

“Since factual pleas raised require verification, including genuineness of documents, we dispose of the present writ petition at this stage without expressing any opinion on merits, with a direction to authorities to verify the documents or any other relevant facts that may be brought to their notice,” the bench stated.

While refraining from setting a timeline, the court urged early resolution and clarified that the interim relief granted will not serve as a precedent for other deportation cases.