Calcutta High Court Orders Return Of Bengal Residents Deported To Bangladesh Within 4 Weeks

The Calcutta High Court has directed the return of West Bengal residents who were deported to Bangladesh by the Delhi Police upon suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals.Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Reetobroto Kumar Mitra directed the return of the citizens within four weeks and held:"The life style of the people shapes the profile of the law and not vice versa. Law cannot be disjuncted from context. The fundamental rights cannot be read as dull lifeless words. If an uncontrolled or unguided power is conferred without any reasonable and proper standards or limits being laid down in the enactment for guidance and control of exercise of such power, the act cannot by the furthest of imagination be construed to be a 'procedure established by law'. The executive cannot be vested with any non-fettered discretion. If officials exercise their public authority in an arbitral whimsical manner, the same would bring such act within the scope of prohibition of the equity clause.""The Court cannot doggedly hold fast to principles which tend to compel a litigant to retreat from a path of pursuing writ remedies, especially when social realities of the current generation mandates that the law must be rid of these principles and bring itself in accord 'with the felt necessities of the times'," they added.#CalcuttaHighCourt #FundamentalRights pic.twitter.com/2JTVV1n7UB— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) September 27, 2025 These orders were passed in a habeas corpus plea seeking the presence of the petitioner's daughter, son-in-law, and grandson, who had been illegally detained.It was submitted by the Additional Solicitor General that the detainees had admitted to the police that they were residents of Bangladesh and they failed to produce their Aadhar Cards, Ration Cards, Voter Identity Cards or any other document to establish that they are citizens of India. In the interrogation report they also admitted that their date of entry in India from Bangladesh was in the year 1998 and they entered through an unauthorized route.He further submitted that under the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946, it is incumbent upon the person concerned to prove that he/she is not a foreigner. Counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is a permanent resident of West Bengal and his daughter and son-in-law are Indian citizens by birth and they originate from a family permanently residing in West Bengal. For lawful employment, they had migrated to New Delhi. The petitioner learned that during an 'identity verification drive' they were picked up, detained and thereafter illegally deported to Bangladesh on 26.06.2025. It was submitted that the petitioner's daughter is at an advanced stage of pregnancy, and they were detained by the Delhi Police before being deported. It was submitted that the 'FRRO, Delhi had been repatriating illegal migrants of Bangladesh as per instruction dated 02.05.2025 issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs'. However, no enquiry was conducted in terms of the memo published by the Union government, and the detainees were deported within a period of two days.State Counsel submitted that the Delhi police had made no attempt to communicate with the West Bengal police, and even after a complaint had been lodged by the petitioner, the Delhi police had not responded to emails from the West Bengal police.Upon hearing the arguments, the court negated the issue on maintainability and held that even if they had admitted to being citizens of Bangladesh to the Delhi police, the law presumes that a statement to a police officer may have been obtained through pressure or force and is therefore not voluntary. "A confessional statement made before a police officer and without any safeguards, would be a direct infringement of the constitutional guarantees contained in Articles 14, 20(3) and 21 of the Constitution of India," they held. "Suspicion, howsoever high, cannot be a substitute of actual proof. There is no appellate authority...There is also no 'adverse security report' against the detainees. The detainees have their relations residing in the State of West Bengal. There is no allegation that they are indulging in activities prejudicial to the State and as such, the kind of overenthusiasm in deporting the detainees, as visible herein, is susceptible to misunderstanding and disturbs the judicial climate in the country," the court added.It was held that the question of citizenship should be considered based on further documents and evidence before an appropriate Court. In the limited scope of the writ petition, though the Aadhaar Card, PAN Card and Voter ID Card were part of the writ petition, however, as none of these documents are proof of citizenship and proof of identity, it may not be sufficient to decide the issue of citizenship. Accordingly, the court noted that even if the detainees may have been on-citizens, the procedure to deport them which was followed by the authorities was improper. Thus, it ordered...

Calcutta High Court Orders Return Of Bengal Residents Deported To Bangladesh Within 4 Weeks

Srinjoy Das