India not a ‘dharamshala’, can’t host refugees from around the world, says SC

India is not a dharamshala, or a public shelter, that can accommodate refugees from around the world, the Supreme Court said on Monday while declining to intervene in the detention of a Sri Lankan Tamil national, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and K Vinod Chandran was hearing a petition challenging a Madras High Court order that directed the Sri Lankan Tamil man to leave India immediately after serving his seven-year sentence in a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

“Is India to host refugees from all over the world?” Live Law quoted Datta as saying. “We are struggling with 140 crore. This is not a dharmshala that we can entertain foreign nationals from all over.”

The Sri Lankan man and two others were arrested in 2015 by the Q Branch, which monitors activities linked to Left-wing extremism and threats to internal security, on suspicion of being operatives of the banned outfit Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a separatist militant group that sought to establish an independent Tamil state in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.

In 2018, a trial court convicted him under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for being a member of the banned organisation. The Madras High Court reduced his sentence to seven years in 2022...

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