GUWAHATI, May 28 � Holding that a suspected foreigner can be arrested under the Foreigners Act-1946 and the Passport (Entry into India) Act-1950, the Gauhati High Court on Thursday said that for early detection and deportation of foreign nationals from Assam and removal of their names from the electoral rolls during pendency of the proceedings before the Foreigners Tribunal, his/her name should be deleted from the electoral rolls forthwith once a reference is made by the jurisdictional Superintendent of Police (Border) to the Tribunal.
Taking a stern view of the State Government and the Centre�s lax attitude on the grave issue of unabated cross-border infiltration from Bangladesh, the court said that the Centre�s affidavit (filed pursuant to the queries made by the court) laying down the procedure for deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants was vague as it did not contain the relevant circulars, and asked both the governments to implement all its directions and also to appraise the court of the action taken in respect of the 16-week time prayed for towards evolving the methodology for early disposal of cases in the Foreigners Tribunals. It further asked the State Government to appraise it of the number of references pending in different tribunals to be registered and the year(s) of such pendency.
Justice BK Sharma, while dismissing the writ petition (WP-C-No.3236/2009) filed by Rustom Ali, a person declared to be an illegal Bangladeshi migrant by the Foreigners Tribunal, Morigaon, directed that it would be the entire responsibility of the SP (B) of the districts to ensure presence of the foreign nationals under reference to the tribunal so that later on after finalization of the proceedings declaring him/her to be a foreign national, there is no excuse that he/she is not available for detention and deportation.
�It will be the responsibility of the SP (B) either to detain him/her in detention camp or to allow him/her to remain on bail subject to the condition that he/she would be available for detention and deportation in the event of the reference being answered against him/her, and no excuse will be entertained that he/she is untraceable and his/her whereabouts are not known,� the judgement read, adding that the jurisdictional SP (B) may also invoke the provisions of the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act-1950 and the Passport (Entry into India) Act-1950 towards detection and deportation of foreigners.
The court also directed the Morigaon SP (B) to detain the petitioner, Rustom Ali, for eventual deportation to Bangladesh. The Morigaon Deputy Commissioner was asked to ensure deletion of his name from the voters list.
