The Centre on Friday said 17,000-odd Indians from Ukraine have been evacuated and remaining 7,000-odd would be brought back swiftly and informed the Supreme Court that some medical students, earlier stuck at the Ukraine border, would be brought to India on Friday night through a special flight from Romania.
A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli appreciated the Union government's efforts but said given the anxiety of parents about their children studying in Ukraine, the Centre could open a helpline to inform them about the whereabouts and safety of the students and the schedule for their evacuation to India.
Attorney General K K Venugopal said the Centre is as much concerned as the SC about safe evacuation of Indians from Ukraine and assured that the government had the wherewithal and experience to accomplish the task. He said during the Gulf War in 1990, the government had evacuated over 1 lakh Indian citizens from Kuwait. As many as 488 flights by Air India over a period of 63 days had brought back the Indians from Kuwait.
CJI Ramana said, "It is unfortunate that we have learnt no lessons from history where the human race goes for war and kills each other. The conflicts can be resolved through dialogues and negotiations. But we have no say in this issue. But, our anxiety is how to bring the students back safely to relieve the parents of anxiety." On Thursday, the CJI had wondered about SC's role in such a situation and asked, "Can we direct (Vladimir) Putin to stop war?"
On the petition filed by parents of Fathima Ahana from J&K who along with 70-odd students were stuck at the Ukraine-Romania border, the AG said, "I had communicated the court's concern to (principal secretary to PM) P K Mishra, who in turn conveyed it to (civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya) Scindia, the person in charge of evacuation process from Romania. Ahana was contacted and she is now in Romania. We are going to bring her on a special flight to India tonight (Friday).” The SC thanked AG for his prompt personal intervention.
The CJI-led bench gave a mouthful to another PIL petitioner-advocate Vishal Tiwari who, the court said, has a habit of filing PILs shorn of any information except attaching newspaper clippings. Referring to the outlandish reliefs sought by Tiwari, the court reminded him that most of his PILs have been dismissed with cost by the SC. "This is a sensitive issue where we cannot say no to PILs by students and parents. Do not try to take advantage of the situation for seeking publicity," the CJI warned.
Venugopal said entertaining of PILs would result in scores of them getting filed in HCs and informed that one has already been filed in the Rajasthan HC. The CJI said, "The Union government's counsel must inform the other HCs not to entertain the PILs on evacuation of students from Ukraine as the Supreme Court is already seized of the issue." SC posted the matter for further hearing on March 11.
(With inputs from agencies)