‘Illegal Immigration Is External Aggression’: HC Backs Assam’s Power To Expel Foreign Nationals

Last Updated:November 07, 2025, 17:21 IST

HC held that once a person is declared a foreign national, the protection under Articles 19 or 21, such as the right to reside, move freely, or pursue a vocation, does not apply

The court clarified that the process concerning declared foreigners in Assam is one of expulsion, not deportation. (File)

The Gauhati High Court has said that the continued influx of illegal migrants into Assam amounts to “external aggression" and poses a grave threat to India’s unity and internal security, while upholding the State’s power to expel declared foreign nationals from its territory.

A division bench of Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Susmita Phukan Khaund made the observations while dismissing a habeas corpus petition filed by Rejiya Khatun, a resident of Chirang district, seeking the release of her husband, Majibar Rahman alias Majibar Sheikh, who had been declared a foreign national by the Foreigners Tribunal, Kajalgaon, in July 2019.

Khatun alleged that her husband, who had been released from detention in 2021 after over two years in custody, was taken away again by Kajalgaon police in May 2025 without being informed of the reason for his arrest. She claimed no arrest memo or grounds of detention were provided and argued that his continued custody violated Articles 21 and 22 of the Constitution.

Rejecting the plea, the court held that a person declared as a foreign national by a Foreigners Tribunal cannot claim the constitutional rights available to Indian citizens. Citing the Supreme Court’s decisions in Hans Muller of Nurenburg v. Superintendent, Presidency Jail (1955) and Sarbananda Sonowal v. Union of India (2005), the bench reaffirmed that the government has “absolute and unfettered discretion" to expel foreigners from Indian soil.

The judges held that once a person is declared a foreign national, the protection under Articles 19 or 21, such as the right to reside, move freely, or pursue a vocation, does not apply. “The declared foreign national cannot claim any fundamental right to reside or move freely within India," the court said, adding that detention in a holding centre pending expulsion cannot be equated with arrest under criminal law.

Referring extensively to the Sarbananda Sonowal judgment, the bench reiterated that the large-scale infiltration of illegal migrants from Bangladesh has changed Assam’s demographic structure and must be treated as a form of “external aggression".

The court cited findings from the 1998 report of former Assam Governor Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha, which warned that the unabated influx of migrants “threatens to reduce the Assamese people to a minority in their own State." The bench also quoted Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s writings, where he had

suggested that Assam’s natural resources made it vital for Bangladesh’s economic expansion.

The bench criticised media portrayals that link Assam’s deportation policies to religious persecution, calling them examples of “misinformation warfare by vested interests against the Country and the State of Assam." It said such narratives distort the legal framework designed to safeguard national integrity.

The court clarified that the process concerning declared foreigners in Assam is one of expulsion, not deportation. Deportation, it said, applies to individuals who entered India lawfully but overstayed, whereas expulsion applies to those who entered illegally.

Holding that the petitioner’s husband’s custody was lawful, the court dismissed the habeas corpus plea and permitted the State to proceed with his expulsion. “There shall be no bar for the State to take steps for expulsion of the declared foreign national," the order concluded.

Salil Tiwari

Salil Tiwari, Senior Special Correspondent at Lawbeat, reports on the Allahabad High Court and courts in Uttar Pradesh, however, she also writes on important cases of national importance and public interests fr...Read More

Salil Tiwari, Senior Special Correspondent at Lawbeat, reports on the Allahabad High Court and courts in Uttar Pradesh, however, she also writes on important cases of national importance and public interests fr...

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