Positively file status report on foreign prisoners: SC to Govt
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to “positively” file a report before it on the latest status of foreign nationals, including those from Pakistan, languishing in jails after having served their full sentence.
A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan asked the government to file within four week its report in pursuance to the apex court’s May 3 this year order.
“Let Union of India file the report in compliance of order dated May 3, 2017 within a period of four weeks, positively. List the matter after four weeks,” IT said.
The Centre had earlier informed the apex court that it had filed a status report in the matter in April last year.
Senior advocate Bhim Singh, the petitioner in the matter, had told the apex court that when he had filed the petition in 2005, there were 82 such persons who were detained in Jammu and Kashmir.
The court was hearing the plea which has sought release and repatriation of foreign nationals lanuishing in different jails in India even after having served their full sentence.
The petition has also raised the issue of Pakistani prisoners arrested for illegally entering India through Jammu and Kashmir.
Expressing serious concern over prolonged imprisonment of such prisoners, the apex court had earlier directed the Centre to release and repatriate 61 Pakistani nationals lodged in jails in India despite having undergone their punishment for various offences.
It had also asked the government to bring in a suitable mechanism to ensure that such foreign nationals were not forced to remain in jails as courts were being frequently flooded with complaints about Pakistani nationals remaining incarcerated despite having served their sentence. JAMMU: A body of Gujjars and Bakerwal communities in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday demanded a compact ‘tribal policy’ to address issues of nomads living in the state.
Founder of the foundation and well-known researcher of the Gujjar community Javaid Rahi, in his address, stressed that tribal communities must be developed without touching their culture, ethnicity and migratory ways of life.
“The government should formulate a compact tribal policy to address issues of nomads as only a well-defined policy can pave way for their overall development,” Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation speakers said at a function here.
Rahi said their overall growth is not possible without any plan.
Lauding the efforts of the state government for establishing first-ever tribal ministry, he said the tribal communities must be treated at par with the tribal of other states of the country. Meanwhile, prominent Gujjar leader and intellectual Shamsher Hakla appealed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sanction special economical package for the welfare and upliftment of the nomad Gujjar and Bakerwal community of the state.
“Nomadic Gujjar and Bakerwals are backward in comparison to the developed communities. They are homeless and landless wondering in the open. They mostly reside in far-flung, hilly mountainous areas near forests and have no access to basic amenities,” Hakla said in a separate statement.
He demanded a special recruitment drive in central and state armed forces for the youth of the community keeping in view their political, social, economical and educational backwardness.
The court was hearing the plea which has sought release and repatriation of foreign nationals lanuishing in different jails in India even after having served their full sentence
NEW DELHI: The Centre has informed the Delhi High Court that its records show a bungalow on Jantar Mantar Road in the heart of the national capital was allotted to the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Smarak Trust and was not allocated to either activist Swami Agnivesh or his NGO.
The response of the Ministry of Urban Development to a query under the Right to Information Act said the records suggested that as on April 30, 1977, bungalow number 7 at the Jantar Mantar Road was in the name of the trust.
“As per records the property is not allocated to Bandhua Mukti Morcha at any point of time. As per the records, the property was not allocated to Swami Agnivesh in the past,” the ministry said.