Make detention centre ready: Gauhati High Court to State Government

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court has asked the State Government to make the Permanent Detention Centre at Matia in the Goalpara district ready on a war footing to shift detenus now in jails.

The State Government, in consultation with the MHA (Union Ministry of Home Affairs a few years back, decided to set up the detention centre at Matia in the Goalpara district exclusively for declared foreigners. Declared foreigners are now staying in detention camps attached to six jails at Tezpur, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kokrajhar and Goalpara.

Hearing a writ petition (WP-crl. 2/2020), a division bench of the Gauhati High Court comprising Chief Justice RM Chhaya and Justice Soumitra Saikia said, "Much time has passed since this court, by various orders, directed the State Government to see that the detenues who are subjected to the orders passed by the different Foreigners Tribunals are shifted from regular jails to detention centres.

"…the detention centre is under construction in the Goalpara District, and the same is not yet complete. The learned counsels appearing for the parties have further orally submitted that 194 such detenues are in different jails in the state."

The High Court directed that the "State Government to come up with an appropriate plan to see that all such similarly situated detenues are shifted either to the detention centre or a similar accommodation which may be created by the State Government even temporarily till the detention centre at Goalpara is ready for habitation. The government shall also explore the possibility whether some rooms at the upcoming detention centre in the District of Goalpara can be made ready on a war footing for shifting of the 194 detenues who are in jails…"

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