AS THE Tarique Rahman government reiterates its request for the extradition of Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, top government officials in India said such requests have to come before the Indian judiciary and be decided by it, but added that intense discussions were on with Dhaka to move away from such a maximalist position.

“The decision to extradite will be finally taken by our courts, it will not be a political or diplomatic decision. And what has to be established during the court process is whether the crimes that are alleged to have been committed are also categorised as crimes under the Indian law,” a top official told .

Another official said Sheikh Hasina had herself said she planned to return to her country in December this year. Asked when she planned to return during a press conference on August 5, she referred to the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war, and said, “December is our victory month, so I want to go back in the month of December.” Hasina faces a death sentence in Bangladesh and her party, the Awami League, has been banned.

The extradition request  cannot be decoupled from the current diplomatic exchanges between Delhi and Dhaka, this official said.

Responding to a question on Prime Minister Rahman’s request for extradition at a media briefing, a spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), had earlier said, “We are examining the matter in accordance with our established procedures, and whenever I have any update to share, I will inform you…”

MEA officials told that Bangladesh’s extradition request to India is annexed with all the required legal documents as per provisions of the 2013 extradition pact between the two countries.

For two years now, since the August 2024 mass uprising in Dhaka, Sheikh Hasina has been given refuge and protection in an undisclosed location in New Delhi. On August 5, she held a virtual press conference in the capital where she announced she was “determined to return home.”

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Members and former Members of Parliament of the ousted Awami League party say that while in her unofficial asylum, Sheikh Hasina has been continuously in touch with her party cadre in Bangladesh; has occasionally been holding in-person consultations and regularly playing table tennis. The 78-year old leader, they say, is proposing to return to Dhaka towards the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the diplomatic parleys over the sensitive issue are on. Using the death penalty verdict delivered by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in November 2025 where she has been convicted for committing “crimes against humanity” as the basis, Dhaka has been pressing for her extradition. Awami League members say that if and when extradition proceedings commence in an Indian court, the ICT verdict would be challenged on several grounds, including the fact that it was delivered during the tenure of an interim Government in Bangladesh, with Muhammad Yunus at the helm.

ExplainedA tightrope walk

The extradition question will not arise if Sheikh Hasina decides to return to Bangladesh in December as she has sa­id. Even otherwise, while the Indian judiciary will take a call on her extradition, Delhi will be keen to resolve the issue diplomatically, and impress upon Dhaka not to take this maximalist position.

India signed an extradition pact with Bangladesh in 2013, and this envisages an “obligation” for return of those who have been charged with or have been found guilty or are wanted for the enforcement of a “judicially pronounced penalty.” It also mentions that should there be an extraditable offence, it would be dealt with by the “judicial authority of the other Contracting State.” Article 6 of the Treaty states that  offences of a “political character” shall not be entertained but also lists 12 offences such as murder, manslaughter, assault, use of firearms, incitement to murder and so on as offences which shall not be regarded as offences of a political character.

Also relevant are provisions of India’s Extradition Act, 1962, which gives information about extradition of fugitive criminals from India. It states that while the CPV (Consular, Passport and Visa) division is the nodal office for dealing with extradition matters, the Ministry after taking into account the relevant extradition treaty/arrangement if it considers it fit, an inquiry magistrate may be appointed to inquire into the case.”

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“If the Inquiry Magistrate considers it is a fit case for the surrender of he fugitive criminal pursuant to the request, the Magistrate may in its report recommend extradition….on the other hand, if, on conclusion of the extradition inquiry, the Extradition Magistrate is of the opinion that a prima facie case is not made out in support of the requisition of the foreign state, he shall discharge the fugitive criminal,” it states.