Centre Appeals High Court Order in Deportation Case of Woman with Decades-Long Indian Ties
(Judicial Quest News Network)
Family] alleges coercion and factual distortion in expulsion following Pahalgam terror attack
New Delhi: 02, July,2025-The Union Home Ministry has filed an urgent appeal challenging the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court’s direction to repatriate 62-year-old Rakshanda Rashid—a Pakistani national who had lived in Jammu for nearly four decades on a long-term visa—after she was deported following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
The Ministry’s Letter Patent Appeal contests Justice Rahul Bharti’s June 6 ruling, which had ordered Rashid’s return within 10 days. On Tuesday, the Ministry sought more time to file its response, but the court emphasized that, in the absence of a stay, compliance was still expected.
Rashid’s daughter, Fatima Sheikh, accused authorities of distorting facts to justify what she calls a hasty and unfair deportation. “They didn’t allow us to even consult our lawyers. My mother has lived her entire adult life in India—how can she now survive in a country where she has no ties?” she said.
The Ministry, in its filing, argued the court had overreached constitutionally, interfering with an executive decision to deport a foreign national. It stated that Rashid’s return was diplomatically untenable given the lack of an extradition treaty or legal mechanism compelling Pakistan to transfer her back.
Although the government’s April 29 order cancelling all Pakistani visas post-attack exempted those on long-term visas or married to Indian citizens—a description that fit Rashid—she was still forced across the border. Her original long-term visa had been renewed annually for years, and her recent renewal request, filed in January, was reportedly never rejected.
The Centre maintained that the court’s directive risked setting a “dangerous precedent” by undermining institutional boundaries and India’s sovereign right to regulate foreign nationals.
The Chief Justice’s bench is slated to hear the appeal on Wednesday.
