Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh HC orders GoI to retrieve Pakistani woman deported post Pahalgam carnage

In an exceptional case, the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has directed the Government of India to retrieve one Rakshanda Rashid, wife of Sheikh Zahoor Ahmed who was deported to Pakistan in the recent drive undertaken by the Government of India post Pahalgam carnage.

"This Court is constrained to direct the Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India to retrieve the petitioner back to J&K, India so as to facilitate the reunion of the petitioner with her husband-Sheikh Zahoor Ahmed in Jammu", a bench of Justice Rahul Bharti ordered recently.

Ordering that needful compliance be carried out within a period of 10 days from the date of passing of the instant order the high court has listed the case on July 1, 2025.

Sheikh Zahoor Ahmed, the husband of the petitioner told the High Court that his wife had no one in Pakistan for her care and custody as she was suffering from multiple ailments and her health and life was at risk with each passing day as she was left to fend for herself and abandoned. 

High Court noted that while the petitioner was having LTV (Long Term Visas) status at relevant point of time which per-se may not have warranted her deportation but without examining her case in better perspective and coming up with a proper order with respect to her deportation from the authorities concerned, still she came to be forced out.  

"Human rights are the most sacrosanct component of a human life and, therefore, 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 and therefore, this Court is coming up with a direction to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India to bring back the petitioner from her deportation", the High Court thus ordered. 

Case Title: Rakshanda Rashid vs. Union of India & Ors.