How Many Persons Declared As Foreigners Deported So Far? Supreme Court Asks Centre

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (February 4) directed the Union Government to inform the details of persons declared as foreigners who have been deported so far to their native nations.

The Court also asked the Union how it was proposing to deal with persons, who were declared as not Indian citizens but whose nationality was not known.

A bench comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan passed these directions while hearing a matter concerning foreigners' detention camps in Assam. The Court pulled up the State of Assam for not initiating the process to deport foreigners, despite being aware of their nationalities, and questioned their indefinite detention in India.

During the hearing, the bench was told by the lawyer for applicants, Senior Advocate Shadan Farasat, that deportations are not taking place because the authorities have only determined that the persons are not Indians and have not ascertained their nationalities. Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, for the petitioner, submitted that as per his information, Bangladesh was refusing to accept the persons detained in Assam as their citizens. Gonsalves said that the process thus left persons "stateless" who are condemned to indefinite detention.

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta told the bench that there were two broad categories of persons. One category comprises persons who are declared as not Indian citizens, and their nationalities are not known. The second category consists of persons who have been declared by the Foreigners Tribunals as not Indian citizens and whose actual nationalities are not known.

The bench noted that as far as the first category is concerned, there is no difficulty regarding their deportation.

Taking note of the second category, the bench directed :

"As far as the second category is concerned, the Union of India will have to tell the Court in what manner the cases of persons (whose nationality is not known) are to be dealt with as they are neither Indian nationals nor their citizenship status is known. We grant time of one month to the Union to file an affidavit.

While filing the affidavit, the Union shall also place on record the details of declared foreigners who are not Indian nationals and the details of the persons who have so far been deported. Details about the measure of deportation shall also be stated and the figures shall be disclosed."

Recently, another bench (Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan) questioned the indefinite detention of illegal Bangladeshi migrants and asked the Union why foreigners who have served their sentence under the Foreigners Act cannot be deported.

Case Title: Rajubala Das v. Union of India and Anr., Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 234/2020

Also from the hearing -  'Can't Delay Deportation Saying Address Not Known' : Supreme Court Asks Assam Govt To Initiate Process To Deport 63 Persons Declared As Foreigners