The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre whether it was open to bringing back six persons, deported from the country to Bangladesh for being illegal immigrants, as a “temporary measure” to ensure they get a full hearing to prove their Indian credentials.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said, “If the person is an illegal migrant from Bangladesh, we will not dispute that. But if somebody shows that I am an Indian citizen and can produce evidence, they have a right to be heard,” as it took up two appeals filed by the Centre challenging two separate orders of the Calcutta high court directing six deported persons to be brought back within four weeks.
Posting the matter for Monday to enable the Centre to take instructions, the bench said, “The allegation is that they are foreigners. These are evidences of probability. Why don’t you (Centre) as a temporary measure bring them back and have a holistic hearing conducted. You have your agencies to verify the documents that they produce. Take instructions on this by Monday.”
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Sanjay Hegde who represented the petitioners before the high court agreed to the court’s suggestion.
The Centre had approached the top court against two sets of orders passed on September 26 by the Calcutta high court filed by Bhodu Sekh and Amir Khan. While Bhodu filed a habeas corpus petition to know the whereabouts of his daughter, her husband and grandson after they were deported by the Delhi police to Bangladesh in June.
The other petition filed by Khan presented a similar case involving his cousin sister and her two minor sons, who were similarly deported from Delhi to Bangladesh around the same time. They used to stay near Rohini and used to work as maids. The high court in its order noted the “hot haste” with which the police acted by arresting them on June 21 and within a week, produced them before the Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO), Delhi. On June 26, FRRO ordered their deportation without a proper hearing.
The Union government claimed that the deportation followed as a result of their inability to show documents of their identity and Indian origin. However, the high court had found the names of their grandfathers in the electoral roll of West Bengal. Convinced by this, the high court directed them to be brought back and be given a full opportunity of hearing.
The HC further cited a memo of May 2025 of the ministry of home affairs which allows immediate deportation only in an “emergent” situation and on completion of enquiry. The HC found no “emergent” situation in the present case.
Going by the worst case scenario that the detenues were not Indian citizens, even then, the HC said that the steps and procedures laid down in the memo ought to have been followed . “Not following such procedure and acting in hot haste to deport them is a clear violation which renders the deportation order bad in law and liable to be set aside.”