SC ‘no’ to deport Tablighis facing criminal cases

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed with the government that there is no question of deporting foreign Tablighi Jamaat members if the criminal cases are pending, reversing its last Friday's order, asking why they were not deported if their visas were cancelled. It fixing further hearing on July 10 after getting rejoinder from the petitioners to the government's affidavit.

The Vacation Bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna also directed the Solicitor General to give the government's affidavit to the lawyers of 34 foreigners from 15 countries, who had attended the Jamaat congregation in a Nizamuddin mosque here and who wanted to be deported back to their countries safely. They have challenged the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) order blacklisting them for entry in India for 10 years and cancellation of their visas.

The Bench also directed all blacklisted foreign nationals to make individual representations before the concerned authorities and told them to challenge the individual orders passed by the Centre before the concerned HCs.

The court's order came on the Centre asserting that individual orders were passed on a case-to-case basis for cancellation of visas and blacklisting of over 2,500 foreigners for their alleged involvement in the Tablighi Jamaat activities, while 205 FIRs have been lodged against them in 11 states, 2765 have been blacklisted and visas of 2679 have been cancelled and they include nine overseas citizen of India (OCI) card holders.

The Centre contended 1,906 Look Out Circulars were issued against the foreign Tablighi Jamaat members.