With no action forthcoming despite the Court's regular monitoring, the bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi told the Assam government not to "play around" with the Court.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued summons for the Chief Secretary of Assam to demand answers on the action undertaken to identify the nearly 72,500 declared foreigners who have been missing since 1985. They have neither been deported nor detained in detention centres in the state.
With no action forthcoming despite the Court's regular monitoring, the bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi told the Assam government not to "play around" with the Court. The bench felt that the state was dragging its feet on a crucial national security issue, and said that the efforts so far to identify and trace the 'missing' foreigners who seem to have merged with the local population are an "exercise in futility".
While directing the personal presence of Chief Secretary next Monday, the bench questioned the state's 2013 shift in policy from push back at the border to deportation after verification of origin country. Due to this, almost 29,000 foreigners were flushed out of Assam.
The bench asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was representing Assam, "So long your government was pushing the foreigners back to Bangladesh without verifying their country of origin. Suddenly, your government has become wise and says we will push back only after verifying country of origin. How do you expect the other country to respond?"
Although Home Secretary was present, the bench said it was precisely for this reason that it had insisted on the presence of Chief Secretary.
The Court then asked the state how many cases of suspected foreigners were pending in the Foreigners Tribunals. As per the figures, 91,609 persons have been declared foreigners since 1985, of which 72,486 are absconding.
Only 938 persons are lodged at the six detention centres.
Summons Chief Secy
SC summoned the Chief Secretary to provide answers. On being told state was doing its best, the bench said, “If this is the best your government can do, permit us to invoke our powers under Constitution (to declare the state is not being run as per Constitution).”
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