Overview

• On July 1 the Home Affairs Ministry filed a Letters Patent Appeal against a June 6 Jammu and Kashmir High Court order directing the Union Home Secretary to repatriate Rakshanda Rashid.
• Justice Rahul Bharti’s repatriation directive currently has no interim stay and the government has been granted ten days to respond to the court’s compliance deadline.
• The ministry contends that Pakistan is under no legal obligation to return Rashid in the absence of an extradition treaty, rendering the court’s order unenforceable abroad.
• The high court emphasized the exceptional human rights concerns of a long-term visa holder married to an Indian and insisted on adherence to its directive.
• Rakshanda Rashid has lived in Jammu on a long-term visa for 38 years, applied for Indian citizenship in 1996, and was deported to Pakistan on April 28 following post-attack visa cancellations.