Can we ask Putin to stop war? SC on PIL
The Supreme Court on Thursday said it couldn't do anything regarding the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis while hearing a PIL on the evacuation of Indian students from the war-hit Ukraine. "What will the court do? Can I give directions to the President of Russia to stop the war?" Chief Justice of India NV Ramana asked. The PIL will come up before the SC on Thursday.
- The PIL came as India has been aggressively carrying out its evacuation mission to bring back stranded Indians from Ukraine.
- The government said out of an estimated 20,000 Indians in Ukraine, 60% have already left the country.
- The Centre has also sent four union ministers--Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju, and Gen (Retd) VK Singh--to neighboring countries of Ukraine to supervise the evacuation.
CJI Ramana said he saw videos on social media asking, "What is CJI doing?" "We sympathize with them," he said. Meanwhile, the petitioner's counsel said, "People are freezing. They have to take care." To this, Ramana replied, "Who has to take care? The government is already doing. We will ask the AG to find out."
India is evacuating its citizens under its flagship Operation Ganga initiative. Since the Ukrainian airspace is closed, the Indian evacuation flights are operating out of Romania, Hungary, Poland, and the Slovak Republic. India is facilitating the evacuation of stranded Indians from Ukraine through its land border crossings with Romania, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Notably, the Centre is bearing the complete cost of evacuation.
Meanwhile, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said under Operation Ganga, 3,726 Indians will be evacuated to India on Thursday. They will be brought back on eight flights from the Romanian capital Bucharest, two flights from Suceava, one flight from Slovakia's Kosice, five flights from Hungary's capital city Budapest and three flights from Poland's Rzeszow, he added.
After receiving evacuated Indians at the Hindon airbase near Delhi, Minister of State for Defence, Ajay Bhatt, said Operation Ganga is progressing successfully. Four union ministers--deputed to oversee the evacuation process--are taking care of every aspect of operations in neighboring countries of Ukraine, he added.
