SRINAGAR: The Ministry of Home Affairs is likely to challenge a recent directive by the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh ordering the return of Rakshanda Rashid, a 63-year-old woman who was deported to Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack crackdown, according to a report in The Hindu.
Rashid, who had been living in Jammu for nearly four decades with her husband and two children, was deported on April 30 through the Attari border, despite reportedly holding a Long-Term Visa (LTV) and having applied for Indian citizenship as early as 1996. Her family claims she was covered under exemptions provided by the Home Ministry’s own post-attack order, which stated that Pakistani women married to Indian citizens would not be repatriated.
The deportation took place in the days after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, leading to Operation Sindoor, a sweeping security response in which the government cancelled the visas of all Pakistani nationals and asked them to leave the country by April 29.
Justice Rahul Bharti of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, while hearing a petition filed by Rashid’s husband Sheikh Zahoor Ahmed, directed the Union Home Secretary to “retrieve” Rashid from Pakistan within ten days, citing humanitarian grounds and what he described as an “SOS-like indulgence.”
“Human rights are the most sacrosanct component of a human life… there are occasions when a constitutional court is supposed to come up with SOS-like indulgence notwithstanding the merits and demerits of a case which can be adjudicated only upon in due course of time,” Justice Bharti observed in the June 6 order. He also asked the government to file a compliance report by July 1.
Rashid is currently staying alone in a hotel in Lahore, with no immediate relatives or support network in Pakistan. Her lawyer told the court that she is gravely ill and lacks both resources and care. The court acknowledged that her LTV status should have triggered closer scrutiny before deportation. “Without examining her case in better perspective and coming up with a proper order… she came to be forced out,” the court said.
Sources in the Union government have now indicated that the Ministry of Home Affairs will soon appeal the order, likely before a Division Bench of the High Court or in the Supreme Court. “The order will be challenged,” a senior government official told The Hindu.
The family’s legal team, meanwhile, is preparing to file a caveat to ensure they are notified if the government proceeds with the appeal. Advocate Ankur Sharma, appearing for the petitioner, said, “We understand the government may appeal, and we are ready with a caveat to be heard when it does.”
The court’s order has ignited debate around the Centre’s handling of women who entered Jammu and Kashmir under the now-defunct rehabilitation policy for former militants. Many such women, brought over as brides from Pakistan, have remained in legal limbo for years, stateless, undocumented, and vulnerable to arbitrary action.
This is the first judicial intervention to question the mass repatriations that followed the Pahalgam attack and could set a precedent for dozens of similar cases across Jammu and Kashmir.
