NEW DELHI, March 18 - The detention centres in Assam are operating according to directions of the Supreme Court, Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy said.
The apex court vide its order dated February 28, 2012 in the writ petition (criminal) No. 310 of 2005 directed that foreign nationals, who completed their sentence, shall be released from jail and be kept in an appropriate place with restricted movement pending their deportation/repatriation.
In pursuance of the court order, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued instructions on March 7, 2012 to the state governments and UT administrations to comply with the directions. Detention centres are set up by the state governments as per their local requirements to detain illegal immigrants some of whom may have completed their sentence and their deportation to their native country may be pending for want of proper travel documents.
In pursuance of the orders of the top court dated September 12, 2018 and September 20, 2018 in a writ petition (civil) No. 406/ 2013 filed by the Collaborative Network for Research and Capacity Building, Guwahati, the Central government on January 9, 2019 had circulated a model of detention centre, and camp manual to all the state governments for implementation.
In reply to a separate question, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said the foreigners tribunals (FTs) in Assam operate under the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Foreigners (Tribunal) Order, 1964. Currently, 283 FT members and 621 employees are working in these tribunals in Assam.
