New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said it would hear a matter on March 4 over the indefinite detention of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants after the Centre said it needed inputs from the Ministry of External Affairs. The development came a day after a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan reserved its verdict in the matter.
On Friday, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, mentioned the matter and said the government wanted to file an additional affidavit after taking specific inputs from the MEA as the matter might have wider ramifications. "We are conscious of the fact that we concluded the hearing of this matter and have reserved the judgment. However, having regard to the sensitive nature of the issue, we direct the registry to renotify this matter on March 4," said the bench.
Mehta was permitted to file an additional affidavit. The top court was hearing a case filed in 2013 and transferred from the Calcutta High Court. On February 13, the top court while reserving its order expressed disappointment over the fact that illegal immigrants were made to suffer the rigor of prisons despite having served sentences post conviction.
It also questioned the Centre on the need to ascertain the nationality of the illegal immigrants from the countries they had to be deported to, in light of the precise charge being over their illegal entry into India. The high court had taken cognisance of a letter written by an organisation which highlighted the plight of illegal Bangladesh immigrants kept confined to correctional homes post conviction under the Foreigners Act.
"The letter brought to the notice of the high court that all those illegal immigrants from Bangladesh who are put to trial for the offence punishable under the Foreigners Act after undergoing sentence instead of being deported to their own country are being detained in the correctional homes of the state of West Bengal," the top court said in its January 30 order.
The bench said the pivotal question was if an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant was held and convicted under Section 14A(b) of the Foreigners Act, 1946, and sentenced to a particular term of imprisonment, whether they should be immediately deported to their own country or kept for an indefinite period in the correctional homes in India, upon completion of their sentence.
"The only confusion in our mind is that once an illegal immigrant is put to trial and is held guilty then what is the requirement for further verification of his nationality at the end of the Ministry of External Affairs?" it added.
