Delhi High Court refuses to entertain PIL seeking school admissions for children of Rohingya refugees

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday declined to entertain a plea seeking directions to the Delhi government to grant school admission to children of Rohingya refugees who had come from Myanmar to India [Social Jurist, A Civil Rights Group vs. Municipal Corporation of Delhi & Anr.]..The Bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela disposed of the public interest litigation (PIL) petition after suggesting that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs could instead be approached on this issue. “We are not going to get involved in this ... The first point of call cannot be High Court, first approach the government ... What you cannot do directly, you cannot do indirectly. Court should not be a medium in this," the Court orally observed. .The Court explained that since such children are not Indians, there were international implications involved. As such, the matter required a policy decision which the Indian government was best-suited to decide on, the Court opined.“Let’s not get carried away. 'Child doesn’t mean whole world will come over here. These are international issues, there are ramifications on security, nationality,” it said. .The Court also briefly referred to the recent Supreme Court judgment upholding the constitutionality of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act of 1955, which deals with the grant of Indian citizenship to immigrants who are covered by the Assam Accord. The High Court Bench observed today that this decision had led to a lot of turmoil and agitation in the State.“In no country in the world will the Court decide who is to be given citizenship," the Court added. .The PIL filed by a civil rights group named Social Jurist had highlighted the denial of school admissions to Rohingya refugee children, allegedly because they did not have an Aadhar card and bank account but only a refugee card issued by United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).The petition also noted that even those Rohingya students who were admitted to government schools faced difficulties as the the Delhi government had denied them statutory benefits like school uniforms and writing material, since their family did not have a bank account.The NGO (Social Jurist) contended that this violated the fundamental right of such children to education..These issues were noticed after Advocate Ashok Agarwal visited a refugee colony in an area in New Delhi. It was also flagged in a written representation to the Delhi government. However, since the representation did not receive any reply, a PIL was filed in the matter before the High Court.By this petition, the NGO had urged the Court to direct the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Education Department of Delhi to take corrective steps. However, the Court declined to issue any such directive today. .Advocate Ashok Agarwal appeared for Social Jurist. The petition was filed through advocates Agarwal and Kumar Utkarsh.