Srinagar: In a judgment that might have far-reaching consequences, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court said that a Pakistani woman living in J&K for years with a long-term visa should have been protected from deportation during India’s retaliatory action after the terror attack in Pahalgam and ‘Operation Sindoor’.
In the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack in April, the Union government had decided to suspend visa services to Pakistani nationals and directed them to leave India. After the deadline ended April 27, the authorities deported several Pakistani nationals.
Several Pakistani women living with their husbands for a long time in Kashmir were deported by the authorities to Pakistan.
Justice Rahul Bharti Monday issued the direction while hearing a writ petition (WP(C) No. 1072/2025) filed by Rashida’s husband, Sheikh Zahoor Ahmed.
The husband challenged her deportation, arguing that she had been living in J&K for years and held a Long-Term Visa, which should have protected her from expulsion.
The court expressed deep concern over Rashida’s health and humanitarian situation, noting that she had no family or support in Pakistan.
Justice Bharti emphasised that “human rights are the most sacrosanct component of a human life” and said constitutional courts are sometimes compelled to act with “SOS-like indulgence” in exceptional circumstances.
“Without proper legal scrutiny or a formal deportation order, Rashida was expelled during what critics have described as a mass repatriation drive that failed to account for individual legal statuses”, the High Court said.
The court noted that Rashida’s Long-Term Visa may have made her ineligible for deportation and criticised authorities for acting without due process.
“She has no one in Pakistan for her care and custody,” her husband told the court, adding that she was gravely ill and left alone in a country where she had never lived independently.
The court has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to coordinate her return from Pakistan within ten days and facilitate her reunion with her husband in Jammu.
A compliance report is to be submitted by July 1.
Advocate Himani Khajuria represented the petitioner, while Deputy Solicitor General Vishal Sharma appeared for the Union of India.
This marks the first major judicial intervention, raising serious questions about the treatment of women who had entered J&K under previous cross-border rehabilitation policies.
The fate of many such women, who came here as spouses of former militants returning from Pakistan under the J&K government’s rehabilitation policy, remains hanging as they lack citizenship or travel rights despite having lived in the region for over a decade.
IANS
