LONDON: The high court of England Monday quashed deportation orders against Bhai Karamjit Singh Chahal, a known Sikh militant leader in England.
Bhai K.S Chahal was arrested in August 1990 on grounds of national security.
Justice Popplewell ordered the home secretary Kenneth Baker to review his deportation order against Chahal, 43, who lived in Britain for 20 years and had claimed he would be tortured and persecuted if he was forced to return to India. Bhai Chahal had taken this plea while defending his case for Asylum in Britain after he was arrested and had cited an Amnesty International report on the human rights situation in Punjab.
But in April this year, his asylum application was rejected by the home secretary and since then he has been kept at Bradford jail.
The high court said the home secretary had failed to make it clear whether the Amnesty report was relevant to Bhai Karamjit Singh Chahal.
In view of the “enormous anxiety” over the case, Bakers reasoning behind his decision to deport Bhai Karamjit Singh Chahal was “inadequate”, the court said.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 6, 1991
