On Tuesday, the Supreme Court strongly criticized the State of Assam for its failure to deport individuals who have been declared as foreigners.
A Bench comprising Justice AS Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan issued a perjury notice to the Assam government, instructing it to submit a detailed affidavit within two weeks on the nationality verification process, including dates of actions taken.
The Court emphasized that the state could not detain these individuals indefinitely once their citizenship status was determined. Once declared foreigners, they should be deported without delay.
During the hearing via video conferencing, the Chief Secretary of Assam informed the Court that deportation was not possible due to the lack of an address for the individuals. However, the Bench stated that even without the full address, the state could deport them to their countries’ capital cities, leaving it to those countries to determine the next steps.
The Court further ordered Assam to begin the deportation process immediately, even without the specific addresses, and instructed the government to improve conditions in detention centres, setting up a committee to inspect the facilities every two weeks.
Additionally, the Court granted the Union of India one month to clarify the procedure for handling stateless individuals and scheduled the next hearing for February 25
