New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday (December 2) underscored intruders and unauthorised foreign nationals have no legal rights in India while adding that  illegal migrants cannot be subjected to custodial torture. The apex court bench also noted that there is no obligation to keep Rohingyas in India if the government has not declared them refugees.

The remarks came during the hearing of a habeas corpus petition seeking information on the location of five Rohingya illegal immigrants who could not be traced after being detained – a request opposed by solicitor general Tushar Mehta. The bench, comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, reacted strongly when counsel for petitioner Rita Manchanda described the Rohingyas as “refugees”.

"Where is the order of the Government of India declaring them [Rohingyas] as refugees? Refugee is a well defined legal term and there is a prescribed authority by the Government to declare them. If there is no legal status of a refugee, and somebody is an intruder, and he enters illegally, do we have an obligation to keep that fellow here?" Justice Surya Kant was quoted as saying by Live Law.

Further, the CJI said while the court has been approaching the issue with compassion, however, “once these illegal migrants are in India, they claim right to food and shelter and help for their children. We have many poor people in the country. They have a right over the country’s resources, not the illegal migrants. True, the illegal migrants cannot be subjected to custodial torture.”

The comments came at a time when several human rights groups have been demanding that Rohingyas, a Muslim community from Myanmar’s Rakhine region, labelled by the military regime there as Bengali outsiders, be formally recognised as refugees.

Manchanda informed the court, "The case here is of custodial disappearance," adding that "what we cannot do is to traffic them out, which is harmful to national security." Further, she underlined that the government itself has laid down a procedure on deportation which should be followed.

However, the CJI remarked "do we give them a red carpet".

"If they don't have legal status to stay in India, and you are an intruder, we have a very sensitive border in the North India side. If an intruder comes, do we give them a red carpet welcome saying we would like to give you all facilities?" the CJI asked. "What is the problem in sending the back?"

Mehta told the bench that the petition effectively seeks disclosure of how deportation procedures are handled, the nature of discussions India has had with other nations on the matter, and access to official documents.

The bench postponed the matter to December 16, when other cases involving Rohingya illegal migrants will also be considered, The Times of India reported.

Earlier, on May 8, a bench of Justices Kant, Dipankar Datta and N. Kotiswar Singh had declined to halt the reported deportation of illegal Rohingya immigrants from Delhi despite urgent appeals from advocates Colin Gonsalves and Prashant Bhushan, who argued that they risk genocide in Myanmar and therefore have the right to stay in India. The bench maintained that the right to live anywhere within the country applies only to Indian citizens and that foreign nationals are governed by the Foreigners Act.

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