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SC refuses to entertain plea challenging ‘push backs’ from Assam to Bangladesh
The plea said the “push back” mechanisms were without any judicial oversight or adherence to the safeguards the Constitution and the Supreme Court envisage
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition challenging alleged deportations to Bangladesh of people other than 63 individuals identified as foreigners in Assam and directed the petitioner to approach the high court.
“You take your recourse to approach the Gauhati high court. 63 persons are being deported. You go to the high court,” said a bench of justices Sanjay Karol and SC Sharma, as it heard a student group’s petition.
The petition annexed press clippings showing people other than the 63 were being picked up and deported to Bangladesh.
Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, who represented the petitioner All BTC Minority Students Union (ABMSU), said the 63 were declared foreigners after the external affairs ministry and Bangladesh confirmed their nationality for deportations. “The action of deportation is based on a pending order,” he said, referring to a February 4 Supreme Court order asking the Union and the Assam governments to deport the foreigners at an Assam detention centre by expediting the process of verification of their nationality with the external affairs ministry and Bangladesh.
The court also scheduled for next week the hearing of a habeas corpus plea of a son seeking the whereabouts of his mother, claiming police picked her up for deportation to Bangladesh.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for the petitioner, said the alleged arrest was directly in violation of the DK Basu guidelines of the Supreme Court on arrests. “They simply come and pick her up, and she is thrown out. She was out on bail by the order of this court since December 28, 2019.”
Sibal cited the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee Versus Union of India case. He added that the court directed the release of detainees in the foreigners camp in Assam, who had completed over three years in detention, subject to certain conditions. The petitioner’s mother, Monowara Bera, was among those detainees granted bail.
The court said it would tag this matter with a pending plea. “We do not know if she is in the country anymore.”
Sibal said that the petitioner has approached the court to know her whereabouts. “Let the state file a counter, as we do not know where she is. They need to respond where she is.”
The court issued a notice to the Assam government after the petitioner said that his mother was detained at Dhubri police station since May 24, and he has no information whether she was deported.
ABMSU has cited similar instances of deportation, citing newspaper reports. It said retired school teacher Kahirul Islam, Abu Bakkar Siddik, and Akbar Ali were allegedly “pushed back” into Bangladesh without due process.
The ABMSU’s petition said the instances reflect a growing pattern of Assam Police and administration’s deportations through informal “push back” mechanisms, without any judicial oversight or adherence to the safeguards the Constitution and the Supreme Court envisage.
The petition said the “push back” policy was being implemented in the border districts of Dhubri, South Salmara, and Goalpara. “This is not only legally indefensible, but also threatens to render stateless numerous Indian citizens, especially those from poor and marginalised communities who were either declared foreigners ex parte or have no access to legal aid to challenge their status.”
The petition sought a stay on the deportations of people other than those on the list of 63 foreigners and a direction to the state and Union government to place the record of the process before the Supreme Court.
