Push back involves serious issues pertaining to life and liberty of a person, says Calcutta HC

The Calcutta High Court has observed that the matter involving push back of permanent residents of West Bengal involves serious issues pertaining to life and liberty of a person and directed the Union Government to file an affidavit disclosing the designated places from where such a group of detainees were pushed back.

A Division Bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobrata Mitra while hearing a petition filed by Bhodu Sheikh, father of Sunali Bibi who was pushed back into Bangladesh after being detained in Delhi, said that the place from which the detainees were pushed back had not been disclosed in the affidavits filed by the Centre. The Bench noted that in absence of such particulars, the issue of territorial jurisdiction cannot be prioritized and decided at this stage.

The counsels appearing for the Union government and security agencies have challenged the petition filed by father of Sunali Bibi before the Calcutta High Court on grounds of its maintainability. The High Court in its order dated September 11 also referred to an affidavit filed by the Centre which stated that FRRO ((Foreigners Regional Registration Office) Delhi being a civil authority has been repatriating illegal migrants of Bangladesh as per instruction dated 2nd May, 2025 issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The counsel for petitioner Bhodu Sekh, the father of Sunali Khatun said that since the month of June, 2025, in spite of repeated efforts he could not contact with the detainees ( her daughter and other family members) and he lodged a missing diary on 6th July, 2025 before the officer-in- charge under Paikar Police Station in the State’s Birbhum district.

Sunali Bibi, her husband Danish, and their eight-year-old son were pushed into Bangladesh on June 26 after being detained by the Delhi Police. Sunali is eight months pregnant. Last month, they were detained by Bangladesh police on charges of illegally entering the country and put in jail. 

West Bengal Migrant Welfare Board under its chairperson Samirul Islam has come to the succour of the family and helped them approach the Courts. Over the past few months there have been reports of migrants being detained in Odisha, Haryana and Delhi. Some migrants from the State have been pushed into Bangladesh.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced a scheme titled Shramashree to provide a monthly stipend of ₹5,000 to migrant workers who are forced to return from other states. Ms. Banerjee has said that about 26,000 migrant workers have returned to West Bengal after harassment of Bengali speaking migrants.

On Friday (September 12, 2025), the Trinamool Congress claimed that a Bengali migrant worker from Nadia’s Tehatta was brutally hacked to death in Visakhapatnam.

“This is the grotesque extension of a climate of LINGUISTIC TERROR cultivated by @BJP4India and its allies. When a political project legitimises exclusion, marginalisation becomes permission to kill,” the Trinamool Congress posted on social media.