ABSTRACT:
The principle of non refoulement, as codified in the Article 33 of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees 1951, is a fundamental principle of the international refugee protection regime. This principle imposes an obligation upon states to ensure that no refugee or asylum seeker is forcibly returned to a country where he or she might be subjected to torture, inhumane or degrading treatment. Keeping in view the importance of the principle in refugee protection, the present work, in the first part, provides an overview of the principle of non-refoulement as fundamental rule of customary international law. The second part of the paper gives a general overview of India’s refugee policy so as to delineate the incorporation of the principle of non-refoulement in the Indian legal system via Article 21 and 51 of the Constitution and also to highlight the excellentjudgments awarded by the judiciary pertaining to adherence to international principles on refugee protection including non- refoulement.