New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday told that there a distinction between Rohingya refugees who had fled to India to escape persecution in their home country and those crossing the border for greener pastures as court agreed to examine whether illegal migrants can claim refugee status.

As distinction was sought to drawn between two category of illegal immigrants to stall the deportation of Rohingyas, the bench of chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Aniruddha Bose said that they would examine points of law and legal rights whether illegal migrants can claim refugee status.

Resisting the attempt by senior counsel Colin Gonsalves to distinguish between two types of migrants — one who had crossed over to India to save their lives and other for economic considerations, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the top must decide if illegal migrants can claim the status of refugees.

“We are of the view that instead of deciding the supplementary questions that have been raised, the aforesaid prayers should receive the attention of the Court”, the top court said in its order directing the hearing of the matter on August 14, 2019.