GUWAHATI, Aug 14 - Criticising the State government for its inaction on the matter of detection and deportation of illegal migrants (declared by tribunals and the court), the Gauhati High Court on Thursday said that as per the court�s experience in almost all the cases the declared foreigners did the vanishing act, rendering their deportation impossible.
��it seems that the powers that be, and for that matter those who are at the helm of affairs, are not at all bothered with this enormous problem. Orders passed declaring persons as foreigners remain on paper only, without being implemented even to the extent of not deleting their names from the voters lists,� Justice BK Sharma observed in his order while disposing a review petition in WP(C) No. 3,263/2015 concerning Jaker Ali of Kalgachia, Barpeta who was declared a foreign national along with his son and mother by the then IM (Determination) Tribunal, Barpeta in 1991 and affirmed by the Appellate Tribunal the same year.
The court also asked the government to appraise the court as to why the guilty officials should not be taken up for appropriate punishment for dereliction of duty.
�Wherever and whenever report is called for from the jurisdictional Superintendent of Police (Border), the only explanation furnished is that in spite of repeated searches being made, the declared foreigner is not traceable,� the court order said.
Pointing out that as per published reports, some 35,000 declared foreigners had done the vanishing act, the court asked what prevented the �mighty administration� from taking effective measures to apprehend the foreigners and keep them in detention camps till their deportation to their country of origin.
�There are also instances of declared foreigners pushed back to Bangladesh again coming back to Assam and invoking writ jurisdiction of this court. Instances are also galore of not deleting the names of declared foreigners from the electoral rolls,� the court order said.
In this particular case, the petitioner, Jaker Ali of Lachanga village under Kalgachia Police Station in Barpeta district, along with his son and mother were declared foreigners, and by filing the review petition the engaged counsel of the petitioner reasoned that he was not aware of the aforesaid judgement passed by the then tribunal and also by the High Court.
Noting that the case in question once again exposed the State government�s lack of political will to solve the �vexed problem of detection, detention and deportation of illegal migrant�, the high court in its order questioned why the State government did not take any action towards apprehending the petitioner, his son and mother despite the matter attaining finality way back in 1997 when the writ petition filed and registered and numbered as CR 966/1992 was dismissed on March 31, 1997.
The court also took serious view of the fact that the respondents, which included the State government, did not bring to the notice of the court the earlier orders passed by the then IM(DT) and also by the High Court on March 31, 1997. Even after passing the order on June 5, 2015 in WP(C) no 3263/2015, the respondents did nothing to bring the real picture to the notice of the court, and it was only because of the review petition filed by the engaged lawyer the matter came to light.
