SC's Refusal to Entertain Plea on Assam Govt's ‘Illegal Deportations’ and What it Means

New Delhi: On June 2, the Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea filed by the All B.T.C. Minority Students’ Union (ABMSU) raising concerns over the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Assam government's “indiscriminate” drive to “push back” individuals who have been declared foreigners by the Foreigners Tribunals (FT) in the state.

Justices Sanjay Karol and Satish Chandra Sharma dismissed the petition and suggested that the petitioner organisation approach the Gauhati high court for appropriate relief.

Filed by ABMSU, a social organisation based in Assam’s Bodoland, the writ petition questioned the growing pattern of deportations conducted by the Assam Police and administrative machinery through an informal mechanism of “pushing back”, without observance of the safeguards mandated by the constitution or the Supreme Court.

The union has claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Assam was arbitrarily ousting Indian citizens to Bangladesh without following any process under the pretext of deporting undocumented migrants.

The petition filed through advocate Adeel Ahmed says that, “This policy of “push back” is being executed in border districts like Dhubri, South Salmara and Goalpara – it 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 also adds that such actions are in a direct conflict with the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 21 and 22 of the constitution, and violate binding judicial precedents laid down by the Supreme Court, including the judgment in “Re: Section 6A of the Citizenship Act 1955” case.

This petition emanates from the recent rise in the number of detentions of declared foreigners in Assam since May 23. Families have claimed that they have no information on their relatives’ whereabouts. Some of them have identified their missing relatives in videos from Bangladesh, alleging they were forcibly sent across the border. 

Take the case of Khairul Islam for instance: on May 24, Islam and eight others were picked up from different parts of Morigaon district, but family members claimed they were not told about their whereabouts. Islam, a former teacher, along with his three siblings, was declared a foreigner by the FT in 2016, against which he had approached the Gauhati high court. The high court had upheld the FT’s decision, leading to Islam's detention in 2018. He was set free in 2020 following a Supreme Court general order for releasing all detainees who have spent more than two years term. On May 31, Islam, who was detained by the Assam police on the charges of being a foreigner and allegedly deported to Bangladesh, was brought back to his home in Morigaon district, an officer had said. From May 27 until the morning of May 31, Islam and the others were reported to be in no man’s land, between India and Bangladesh.

Such deportation drives are being undertaken as a result of the Supreme Court’s recent order, the petition claims. The said order delivered in February this year, rapped the state for not initiating the process of deporting 63 individuals who have been declared foreigners by the FT on the ground that their addresses are unknown.

The petition has also submitted that the said order, which pertain specifically to 63 named individuals whose nationality had been verified by the Ministry of External Affairs, is now being indiscriminately applied by the respondent state and law enforcement agencies to detain and forcibly deport several persons without due process. These include individuals not named in the Annexure to the affidavit dated February 3, 2025, and persons who have not received FT orders or have not been afforded the opportunity to challenge or review such orders. 

The petitioner has also submitted that “they are in possession of credible material-including news reports, family testimonies, and field verification-indicating that numerous individuals have already been deported or are on the verge of being pushed across the international border under a purported ‘push back’ policy”.

This policy, the petitioner has stated is being implemented in absence of any judicial oversight or constitutional safeguards, poses an imminent threat to the fundamental rights of numerous Indian citizens.

In addition to this, more than 2,000 alleged illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are estimated to have been “pushed back” across the border by Indian authorities since Operation Sindoor began in the early hours of May 7, following a nationwide verification exercise, The Indian Express has reported.

Amid these ‘illegal deportations’ which the Supreme Court has refused to acknowledge, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also released a statement regarding at least 40 Rohingya refugees who were detained in New Delhi and cast into the sea by the Indian navy near the maritime border with Myanmar. The refugees, including children and women, swam for their life, but their whereabouts in Myanmar remain unknown, the agency said.

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