Following a nudge from the Supreme Court, the Centre on Wednesday allowed a pregnant woman and her eight-year-old child to re-enter India on “humanitarian grounds”, months after they were sent to Bangladesh.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that the competent authority had agreed to allow the woman and her child to enter India purely on humanitarian grounds without prejudice to rights and contentions, and they would be kept under surveillance.

Following Mehta’s submission, the Bench directed the West Bengal Government to take care of the minor and instructed the chief medical officer, Birbhum district, to extend all necessary medical support, including ‘free-of-cost delivery’, to the pregnant woman, Sunali Khatun

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