The Supreme Court on Friday said no Rohingya refugee should be deported till the next hearing in the case on November 21, ANI reported.

Hearing a petition challenging the Centre’s decision to identify and deport Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, the court said the government needs to strike a balance between national security and protecting the human rights of the refugees, according to News18.

Earlier, the government had defended its intention to deport Rohingyas, claiming they were a threat to national security.

The three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, held that the Centre cannot be oblivious to the plight of innocent women and children. It said that if the government comes up with a contingency plan before the next hearing, it must inform the court.

In August, the Centre had announced that it was planning to deport all 40,000 Rohingya refugees living in the country. On September 18, the government told the Supreme Court in an affidavit that the continued illegal immigration of Rohingyas to India had “serious national security ramifications and threats”. It claimed that inputs from security agencies indicated that some of the refugees had links with terror groups in Pakistan.

The Centre’s plea was in response to a PIL filed by two Rohingya immigrants, Mohammad Salimullah and Mohammad Shaqir, who said they had taken refuge in India after escaping discrimination, violence and bloodshed against their community in Myanmar.