Deportation may not require legal process: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that a Supreme Court Constitutional Bench, while hearing a case related to Article 6A of the 1955 Citizenship Act, said Assam didn’t need to route the cases of illegal immigrants through the tribunals. File | Photo Credit: ANI

The Assam Government may follow a 1950 order to fast-track the detection and deportation of “illegal immigrants” instead of going through a long legal process, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday (June 7, 2025).

He said illegal immigrants, once detected, will henceforth be pushed back without referring their cases to the quasi-judicial Foreigners Tribunal (FT) or any court.

“The process of detecting and deporting foreigners staying illegally in Assam was slowed down due to the exercise to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC). We can now push back such people without going through tribunals,” the Chief Minister told journalists at Ghagrapar in western Assam’s Nalbari district.

Assam has 100 FTs, the first few of which were established in 2005 to adjudicate the citizenship of people referred by the Assam Police’s border wing on suspicion of being illegal immigrants, a euphemism for Bangladeshi nationals allegedly staying illegally in the State.

Mr. Sarma said that a Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court, while hearing a case related to Article 6A of the 1955 Citizenship Act, said Assam didn’t need to route the cases of illegal immigrants through the tribunals.

“The Supreme Court observed that an old law, the Immigrants Expulsion Order (1950), continues to be valid. Under its provisions, even a District Commissioner can issue an order to immediately pushback illegal immigrants,” he said.

The Chief Minister said that the State Government, made aware of this order recently, would deliberate on the matter thoroughly before implementation.

“We have already pushed back a large number of people, except those with ongoing court cases. The number of illegal immigrants being deported is increasing and will continue to do so at a faster pace,” Mr. Sarma said.

Also Read | Ground Zero: The ‘suspected foreigners’ of Assam

Barrage of criticism

The Chief Minister’s view on the deportation process follows criticisms of its recent pushback drive from minority organisations and rights activists. On May 28, the government pushed back 14 people — all Bengali-speaking Muslims, who were declared foreigners by the FTs or facing charges as “illegal immigrants” — into Bangladesh.

Not accepted by Bangladesh, these 14 people spent more than two days on the no man’s land (the neutral zone on the border between any two countries) before they were sent home in Assam.

These organisations accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Government of indiscriminately detaining and deporting people suspected of being foreigners, without proper verification.

On June 2, the Supreme Court declined to entertain a petition filed by the All BTC Minority Students’ Union, which challenged the Assam government’s alleged arbitrary deportation measures. BTC expands to the Bodoland Territorial Council.

In May, the Ministry of External Affairs urged Dhaka to expedite the nationality verification process to facilitate deportations. The Ministry’s spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, said more than 2,000 verification cases were pending with the Bangladesh government.

Published - June 07, 2025 09:13 pm IST