Supreme Court: The 3-judge bench Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and BR Gavai, JJ disposed of the petition seeking a direction to expedite repatriation of the Indian and Nepali citizens through diplomatic channels who stuck in Nepal and India, respectively, due to COVID-19 lockdown, after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Court that,
“the consulate at Nepal is taking all necessary care of those Indian citizens and the Government has decided to bring back those Indian citizens after 07.05.2020 and necessary steps in that regard are being taken.”
Senior Advocate Colin Gonslaves, appearing for the petitioner, had told the Court that there were large number of Indian Citizens who were stranded in Nepal and were not able to come to India.
He also told the Court that
“after the last order was passed on 30.04.2020 positive development was taken and large number of Nepali citizens have been sent back to Nepal but still there are about 214 persons who have not yet been sent.”
On this Tushar Mehta said that he will look into the matter and if there are still Nepali citizens who need to be sent, necessary steps shall be taken.
[Ganga Giri Goswami v. Union of India, 2020 SCC OnLine SC 436 , order dated 05.05.2020]
