New Delhi: The central government on Thursday (February 13) told the Supreme Court that foreigners and illegal immigrants cannot be deported to their respective home countries immediately after serving their sentences, because the process requires their home country to verifying their identities and providing them travel documents for repatriation.
“In case he/she does not have valid travel documents, it is necessary/mandatory to obtain requisite travel documents from the concerned country’s embassy/high commission through the process of nationality verification before he/she can be deported,” the Ministry of Home Affairs told the Supreme Court on Thursday, reported the Times of India.
Last week, a bench of Justices A.S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan had told the Centre that lack of foreign address cannot be a reason to delay their deportation to their home country.
“Show us that without an address, you (the govt) cannot deport them. You cannot detain them indefinitely. If you know that they are from a particular country then it is for that country to decide where they should go. There is reluctance on your part,” the court had said.
The MHA told the court that verification of the nationality is a sovereign function of the foreign government and no time limit can be fixed for completion of the process.
