Extradition treaty
Also called: Extradition · Topic: India's External Relations, 1947-1999: Non-alignment, Wars and Nuclear Policy · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
An extradition treaty is an agreement between two countries to hand over a person who is wanted for a crime. The country where the person is found sends them back to the country that wants to put them on trial or punish them. Most treaties follow dual criminality, which means the act must be a crime in both countries. Many treaties also refuse to hand over people wanted only for "political offences". In India, extradition is in the Union List, so only the Centre deals with it. It matters because a country cannot arrest anyone on another country's soil, so these treaties are how states stop wanted people from escaping justice by crossing a border.
Example
India wants the Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on terror charges. He lives in the United States. To bring him to India for trial, India has to use the formal extradition channel with the US, and a US court must agree that the request meets the treaty's conditions.
Don't confuse with
- Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT): under an MLAT, countries help each other with evidence, documents and investigations. They do not hand over the person.
- Deportation: a country removes a foreigner on its own decision, for example for breaking visa rules. Deportation needs no request from another state and no criminal charge.