Supreme Court directs plea on Assam deportation drive down to High Court

The Supreme Court on Monday, 2 June, refused to entertain a plea which alleged that the Assam government has reportedly launched a "sweeping" drive to detain and deport persons suspected to be foreigners without nationality verification or exhaustion of legal remedies.

A bench of justices Sanjay Karol and Satish Chandra Sharma told the petitioner to approach the Gauhati High Court in the matter.

"Why are you not going to the Gauhati High Court?" the bench asked senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, who appeared for the petitioner, the All BTC Minority Students Union.

Hegde said the plea was based on an order passed by the apex court earlier.

"Please go to the ," the bench observed.

Hegde said the petitioner would withdraw the plea to take appropriate recourse before the high court.

The bench allowed him to withdraw the plea.

The plea, filed through advocate Adeel Ahmed, referred to a 4 February order of the top court which, while dealing with a separate petition, had directed Assam to initiate the process of deportation of 63 declared foreign nationals, whose nationality was known, within two weeks.

"Pursuant to the said order (of February 4)... the state of Assam has reportedly launched a sweeping and indiscriminate drive to detain and deport individuals suspected to be foreigners, even in the absence of foreigners tribunal declarations, nationality verification, or exhaustion of legal remedies," the plea claimed.

It referred to news reports, including one about a retired school teacher who was allegedly "pushed back" into Bangladesh.

"These instances reflect a growing pattern of deportations conducted by the Assam Police and administrative machinery through informal 'push back' mechanisms, without any judicial oversight or adherence to the safeguards envisaged by the Constitution of India or this court," it claimed.

"The 'push back' policy, as implemented, violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution by deporting individuals without due process, thereby denying them the opportunity to contest their deportation and infringing upon their right to life and personal liberty," the plea claimed.

It alleged that the indiscriminate application of deportation directives, coupled with absence of proper identification, verification and notice mechanisms, has resulted in a situation where Indian citizens were being wrongfully incarcerated and threatened with removal to foreign territories without lawful basis.

The plea sought a direction that no person shall be deported pursuant to the 4 February order without a prior reasoned declaration by the foreigners tribunal, without adequate opportunity of appeal or review and verification of nationality by the ministry of external affairs.

It also sought a declaration that the "push back" policy adopted by Assam was violative of Articles 14 (equality before law) and 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution and contrary to binding judicial precedents.