The Delhi High Court on Tuesday declined to hear a petition seeking directions to the National Capital Territory government to grant school admission to the children of Rohingya refugees, Bar and Bench reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela disposed of the public interest litigation plea, saying that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs should be approached on the matter.

The bench said that since the children are not Indian citizens, there would be international implications to the decision the court makes, Live Law reported. Therefore, the bench said, the matter needed a policy decision that the Union government was best suited to make.

“Let’s not get carried away,” the bench said. “Child doesn’t mean the whole world will come over here. These are international issues, there are ramifications on security, nationality.”

Social Jurist, a civil rights group, had said that the children of Rohingya refugees were being denied school admission. This was allegedly because the families only had identity cards issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council, not an Aadhaar card and a bank account.

The plea also said that even those Rohingya students who had been admitted to government schools were facing difficulties as the Delhi government had denied them statutory benefits such as school uniforms and writing material because their families did not have bank accounts.

This violated the children’s right to education, the petitioner contended.

The matter was highlighted to the Delhi government, the petitioner said. The plea was filed after the government did not respond.