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Are you waiting for ‘muhurat’, SC asks Assam on sending back immigrants

The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Assam Government for its failure to deport 63 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh declared as ‘foreigners’ under the Foreigners Act, 1946, and keeping them in detention centres indefinitely. “You have refused to start...
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Assam Government for its failure to deport 63 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh declared as ‘foreigners’ under the Foreigners Act, 1946, and keeping them in detention centres indefinitely.

“You have refused to start deportation saying their addresses are not known. Why should it be our concern? You deport them to their country. Are you waiting for some muhurat (auspicious time)?” a Bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan asked the Assam Government.

The Assam Chief Secretary attended the hearing virtually on a petition concerning the deportation of declared foreigners and the condition of detention centres in the state.

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“Once you declare a person foreigner, then you have to take the next logical step. You cannot detain them till eternity.

Article 21 of the Constitution is there. There are many foreigner detention centres in Assam. How many have you deported?” it asked the Assam Government counsel.

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“The state exchequer is spending on the persons detained for so many years. This concern doesn’t seem to be affecting the government,” Justice Oka said.

Directing the Assam Government to start deportation of 63 persons kept in detention centres in two weeks and file a compliance affidavit, the Bench posted the matter for further hearing on February 25.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Bench that he would sit with Ministry of External Affairs officials and find a solution as the issue had to be dealt with diplomatically.

The court gave a month to the Centre to clarify how to handle stateless individuals. It also directed the Centre to furnish details of persons declared ‘foreigners’ and deported so far to their native nations.

The Bench asked the Assam Government to form a committee to inspect detention centres fortnightly to ensure better conditions.

“Even without an address, you can deport them. You can’t continue to detain them indefinitely... Once they are held to be foreigners, they should be deported immediately. Then how can you wait till their address is received? It is for the other country to decide where they should go,” the top court said.

As the Assam Government counsel sought to know where these people should be deported to in the absence of an address, the Bench said, “You deport them to the capital city of the country. Suppose the person is from Pakistan — you know the capital city of Pakistan? How can you keep them detained here, saying their foreign address is not known?”

On behalf of the petitioners, senior counsel Colin Gonsalves submitted that Bangladesh has refused to accept these persons as their citizens and hence they were indefinitely continuing in detention centres in India.

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