India dispatch: two extradition cases test India’s human rights obligations

The correspondent submitting this dispatch is a regulation pupil in Mumbai who should stay nameless.

Two high-profile extradition circumstances unfolding this month spotlight India’s obligations below home and worldwide regulation: the potential extradition of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from India, and India’s efforts to extradite diamond service provider Mehul Choksi from Belgium.

Sheikh Hasina, who served as Prime Minister of Bangladesh for practically 20 years throughout a number of phrases, was ousted in 2024 after political upheaval and fled to India in August. Earlier this week, she was sentenced to loss of life in absentia by Bangladesh’s Worldwide Crimes Tribunal (ICT) for crimes towards humanity, notably within the context of the coed rebellion of 2024. Whereas India has not acquired a proper extradition request following the decision, the problem is poised to turn out to be a diplomatic and geopolitical problem for India.

Mehul Choksi, diamond service provider and principal accused within the $1.8 billion Punjab Nationwide Financial institution fraud case, has been the topic of a now-revoked Interpol purple discover and white-collar crime proceedings spanning three continents over the previous seven years. He appealed his extradition determination to the Belgian Supreme Court docket. On December 9, the court docket rejected his attraction, clearing the trail for his extradition to India.

India’s extradition framework

Article 253 of the Indian Structure grants Parliament the facility to make legal guidelines to implement worldwide treaties, agreements, conventions, or selections of worldwide our bodies. India at present has extradition treaties with 48 nations and extradition preparations with 12 others. The Indian Parliament enacted the Extradition Act of 1962 to offer the legislative foundation for extradition from India.

The Hasina case: non-refoulement considerations

The precept of non-refoulement in public worldwide regulation and worldwide humanitarian regulation prohibits a rustic from returning an individual to a state the place there are substantial grounds for believing they might be in peril of being subjected to torture. It requires consideration of whether or not there’s a constant sample of gross, flagrant, or mass violations of human rights.

The United Nations expressed considerations over a capital sentence issued in a trial in absentia, considerations heightened by politically unstable situations in Bangladesh. Regardless of the regime change in 2024, human rights violations within the type of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings proceed unchecked.

The Choksi case: judicial hurdles and human rights compliance

Choksi fled India in 2018, and New Delhi’s makes an attempt to extradite him date again to March of the identical yr. He was detained in Dominica in 2021, alleging he had been “kidnapped” by Indian brokers. He subsequently initiated proceedings towards Antigua and Barbuda earlier than the Inter-American Court docket of Human Rights and towards India earlier than the UK Excessive Court docket.

The most recent growth started in August 2024, with India sending a proper extradition request to Belgium. The Antwerp District Court docket held the arrest warrants issued by a Mumbai court docket as enforceable, a call upheld by the Antwerp Court docket of Attraction. Choksi appealed to the Belgian Supreme Court docket, which rejected his attraction on December 9, clearing the trail for his extradition to India.

Belgian courts have repeatedly emphasised that India’s request should adjust to human rights obligations, notably in mild of Choksi’s considerations about custodial mistreatment and insufficient medical care. India addressed these considerations by a proper letter of assurance to Belgium. This case illustrates the judicial challenges within the extradition course of, particularly when the fugitive’s substantial assets allow a number of high-level authorized proceedings.

India’s efforts to extradite different monetary offenders from Europe, akin to Nirav Modi and Sanjay Bhandari, will now be more and more evaluated by the framework of human rights compliance.

The parallel circumstances of Sheikh Hasina and Mehul Choksi signify extradition from India and extradition to India, respectively, in addition to the human rights concerns in each contexts. These circumstances replicate India’s place inside a broader development of guaranteeing that the cooperative system of extradition doesn’t override truthful trials and due course of.

Opinions expressed in JURIST Dispatches are solely these of our correspondents within the discipline and don’t essentially replicate the views of JURIST’s editors, employees, donors or the College of Pittsburgh.