Tell govt to evacuate students: Supreme Court to AG

New Delhi, March 3

As thousands of Indian students remain stranded in Ukraine, the Supreme Court on Thursday asked Attorney General KK Venugopal to talk to the government to evacuate them.

“Please look (into it) and see if you can help…There are 1,000 students like this but some have come here… We can’t say no, please use your good offices and do something,” a Bench led by CJI NV Ramana told Venugopal. It asked the petitioners to give a copy of the petition to the Attorney General.

Stuck at Romania border: Petitioner

• Petition claims Ukrainian forces not allowing students to cross over to Romania
• Flights operating from Poland & Hungary, not from Romania
• Students stuck in freezing temperatures for over six days, it claims

As Venugopal asked if the students had already crossed over to Romania, senior advocate AM Dar, who had in the morning mentioned a petition on the issue, said they were still in Ukraine as security forces were not allowing them to cross the border.

Earlier, Dar mentioned the petition and sought a direction to the Centre to evacuate the stranded as soon as possible. “Flights are being operated from Poland and Hungary and not from Romania…Most of them are girls. They are in freezing temperatures for six days,” Dar said.

“Do I ask Vladimir Putin to stop the war? What do you want? We all have sympathies with them. But what direction can the court give?” the CJI told Dar even as he said he would ask the Attorney General to find out the situation and that he would list the matter for hearing.