Canadian courts dismiss 30 Khalistan-linked asylum appeals in 2025
Canadian courts dismissed 30 asylum appeals linked to Khalistan support in 2025, with only 4 upheld, citing insufficient evidence of persecution risks.
Canadian federal courts have, just this year, dismissed appeals from at least 30 persons challenging removal orders or refusal of asylum claims on the basis of their purported support for Khalistan.
These rejections were confirmed by the Hindustan Times from Federal court records for 2025, appealing against the government’s decision to seek their removal from the country or to deny them refugee status. In several cases, the applicants cited some association with the secessionist group Sikhs for Justice or SFJ or possessing a voter ID for the so-called Khalistan Referendum as underpinning their stated fear of persecution if they returned to India. On the other hand, just four applicants had their appeals upheld by a federal court.
These figures are based on only court records that have been publicly published.
The latest such case was a judgment in the matter of Pardeep Singh versus the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, in which the applicant sought a judicial review of a removal order. The plaintiff’s case included an affidavit from his parents and social media evidence of the applicant’s “continued support of the Khalistan movement in Canada.” However, the motion was dismissed by federal court Avvy Yao-Yao Go in Toronto on September 6.
“Having considered the materials filed by the parties and counsels’ submissions, I am dismissing the motion for a stay,” she wrote in the judgment.
The applicant, an Indian citizen, first came to Canada with a spousal work permit on February 2, 2023. The work permit expired on November 10, 2024 and he did not seek to extend it but filed a refugee claim on November 16, 2024.
In a ruling on August 27 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Federal justice Guy Regimbald disagreed with applicant, Kanwaljit Kaur’s assertion that she risked “persecution, and consequently irreparable harm will occur, because of her involvement with Sikhs for Justice and her support for the Khalistan movement.”
In the judicial review of a negative decision on her Pre-Removal Risk Assessment or PRRA, the judge said the claims were “speculative” and that having a voting card for the so-called Khalistan Referendum was “insufficient to establish” she had “a sufficiently high profile to make her a person of interest for the Indian authorities.”
Kaur arrived in Canada in February 2018 and claimed refugee protection, more than one year later, in September 2019. She original claim was on the grounds of fear of her “abusive husband”.
On August 25, a federal court upheld a decision to deny asylum claims filed by an Indian couple on the grounds that their argument that they faced persecution if they returned to their home country due to their pro-Khalistan activity in Canada was “disingenuous”.
In a judgement in Montreal, Federal judge Benoit M Duchesne deemed “reasonable” the previous decisions taken by the Refugee Board of Canada’s Refugee Appeal Division or RAD on February 15, 2024, and IRB’s Refugee Protection Division or RPD three months earlier.
The principal applicant 38-year-old Amandeep Singh and the associate applicant 32-year-old Kanwaldeep Kaur had amended their original application before the RPD hearing to state they “had become supporters of Khalistan during their time in Canada and will be persecuted as a result of their new political activities if they are returned to India. They adduced protest photos and Punjab Referendum Khalistan voter registration cards issued by Sikhs for Justice,” the judgement noted.
