Assam Cabinet approves SOP to detect, deport 'illegals' in 10 days

GUWAHATI: Assam Cabinet approved on Tuesday a new standard operating procedure empowering district commissioners and senior superintendents of police to identify and expel illegal immigrants within 10 days, sidestepping the long route through the Foreigners' Tribunals.Illegal immigrants detected within 12 hours of crossing into Assam, or found near zero line along the border, will be pushed back immediately, the SOP mandates. If proof of Indian citizenship is not furnished within 10 days, the DC must issue an expulsion order, giving the person 24 hours to exit through a designated route.CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said the overhaul was necessary to unclog Assam's burdened tribunal system.

"The current route through Foreigners' Tribunals till conclusion is a long one, which may stretch to the HC and SC. There are 82,000 pending cases in our tribunals. This Cabinet decision bypasses the tribunal system for the first time," he said.The move marks a sweeping shift in how Assam tackles illegal immigration, particularly from Bangladesh. Bangladeshi Muslims have long been at the heart of the state's demographic anxieties and were central to the anti-foreigner agitation of the 1980s, a movement that reshaped the state's politics and culminated in the Assam Accord of 1985.

The new framework draws authority from the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, a law enacted specifically for the state but largely overshadowed by later Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act.IM(DT) Act was enforced only in Assam from Oct 15, 1983. Other states continued under the Foreigners Act, 1946. Supreme Court struck it down as ultra vires in 2005 after a petition filed by then students' leader and current Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal.SC called it discriminatory and violative of Art 14 on equality and Art 355, which obliges Centre to shield states from external aggression and disturbance. The law made detection and deportation of illegal immigrants cumbersome with stiff procedural barriers. Unlike Foreigners Act, where suspects must prove citizenship, IM(DT) shifted the burden onto state, weakening enforcement.Post-IMDT, Assam defaulted to tribunals until a constitutional bench last Oct ruled the 1950 Act "shall be effectively employed for the purpose of identification of illegal immigrants".

The 1950 Act empowers Union govt to order the removal of any person or class of people entering Assam from outside India, if their stay is deemed detrimental to public interest or to the rights of scheduled tribes in the state.The SOP says only when officials cannot make a prima facie call will a suspected immigrant's case be sent to a tribunal. People already declared foreign nationals by tribunals, having exhausted all appeals, will face immediate expulsion without further verification.Under the new system, once a suspect is flagged, SSP must capture biometric and demographic data on Foreigners Identification Portal. If an expulsion order is ignored, the person will be placed in a holding centre or handed to BSF.