Assam: SC Demands Clarity on Deportation of 211 Foreign Nationals

GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court has asked the Assam State Government and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to furnish details on how 211 foreign nationals, presently detained at a transit camp in the Goalpara district of Assam, would be deported.

The Court has also asked the Government of Assam to respond on an actionable report received from the Assam District Legal Services Authority pertaining to these 211 persons, of which 66 are Bangladeshi nationals.

The detention camp condition case in Assam was taken up by justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih. 

On July 26, the court termed the detention camp conditions as "deplorable" and a "sorry state of affairs", finding poor water supply, bad sanitation, leaky restrooms among other problems. These findings come from a study by the Assam Legal Services Authority.

In an affidavit filed before the Ministry of Home Affairs on August 14, it was said that the Central Government has powers to deport and send back foreign nationals. This is exercised under Section 3 of the Foreigners Act, they said while adding that now it is exercised by the State Government in parts.

Justice Oka felt that after going through the affidavit, it was found that the Union Government had passed all the responsibility to the State Government. Authority might be divided but everybody has certain responsibilities to be performed, he pointed out.

The State counsel said the Assam government would file an affidavit on the issue. He further stated that a letter had already been sent in 2019 to the Ministry of External Affairs on the issue of asking for the forms needed for verification of nationality status; no verification report had been received yet.

The counsel explained that since the detainees are allegedly Bangladeshi citizens, verification of nationality requires diplomatic correspondence between the External Affairs Ministries of India and Bangladesh.

The Court held that without the report on record, it could not consider issues beyond a certain point. It thus ordered the Supreme Court Registry to place the report on record in the Committee's records.

Justice Oka explained that the report gives specific details about how many of the declared foreign nationals are scheduled to be deported.

"The Court made it known, saying it would issue a direction, but the Union as well as both State Governments need to make collective efforts to send back the declared foreign nationals, unless somebody says that they do not want to go," it said.

Colin Gonsalves, Senior Advocate appearing for the petitioners, said though the process under CAA-NRC started ten years ago, only a very small number of people out of 2 lakh had been deported, as mentioned in an affidavit filed some time ago.

Justice Oka pointed out that a report is there to state that some foreign nationals do not want to go back to their native place.

To this he replied saying that most these people are willing to stay and have challenged the orders of the foreigner tribunal, which were passed in their absence.

Justice Oka, meanwhile, had felt that the foreign nationals from Bangladesh appeared "anxious to go".

On May 16, Justices Oka and Bhuyan ordered the immediate deportation of 17 foreign nationals including four who had been detained for over 7 years.

ALSO READ:

ALSO WATCH: