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The persons declared foreigners were being “pushed back” to Bangladesh under a legal framework, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed on Saturday.
The Supreme Court, while hearing the challenges to Section 6A of the 1955 Citizenship Act, had said that “there is no legal requirement for the Assam government to always approach the judiciary in order to identify foreigners”, Sarma told reporters.
“There exists an old law called the ‘Immigrants Expulsion Order’,” Sarma said. “The Supreme Court has stated that this law is still in force. According to this law, the DC [district collector] has the authority to issue an order and permit immediate pushback.”
The chief minister added: “For whatever reason, our lawyers hadn’t informed us about this, and we weren’t aware of it either. In the past few days, the entire matter has come to light. That’s why we will now discuss it seriously, and the pushback process will continue.”
In October, the Supreme Court had upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the 1955 Citizenship Act.
Section 6A was introduced as a special provision under the Act when the Assam Accord was signed between the Union government and leaders of the Assam Movement in 1985. It allows foreigners who came to Assam between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971, to seek Indian citizenship.
Indigenous groups in Assam have alleged that this provision in the Act had legalised infiltration by migrants from Bangladesh.
Sarma said on Saturday that the process of identifying foreigners, “which had paused due to NRC [National Register of Citizens]-related matters, will now be speeded up a bit”.
Responding to a reporter’s question about whether the process will continue, Sarma said that it will “not just continue, but [it will take place] at a slightly more accelerated pace”.
“And this time, if someone is identified as a foreigner and we don’t send them to a tribunal, we will repeatedly push them back,” he said. “Preparations for this have been ongoing over the last few days.”
Sarma added: “Regarding the push back of foreigners, we have already carried out many such pushbacks. However, we haven’t acted on cases that are still pending in court.”
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The deportations
On May 31, the chief minister confirmed that Assam was “pushing back” to Bangladesh persons who have been declared foreigners by the state’s Foreigners Tribunals.
Foreigners Tribunals in Assam are quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate on matters of citizenship. However, the tribunals have been accused of arbitrariness and bias, and of declaring people foreigners on the basis of minor spelling mistakes, a lack of documents or lapses in memory.
Sarma’s May 31 statement had come against the backdrop of an increase in detentions of declared foreigners in Assam since May 23. Families say they have no information on their relatives’ whereabouts. Some of them have identified their missing relatives in videos from Bangladesh, alleging they were forcibly sent across the border.
Sarma had claimed that the process of pushing back foreigners was being taken as per the directives issued by the Supreme Court in February.
On February 4, the court directed the state government to start the process of deporting foreign nationals being held in the state’s detention centres immediately.
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Two more arrested in crackdown on ‘anti-nationals’: Sarma
Two more persons were arrested in Assam in a crackdown on alleged “anti-national and communal elements”, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday.
With this, the number of arrests in such cases in the state since the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam increased to 90.
While Goalpara Police arrested Sanidul Islam for allegedly “offensive social media posts on Lord Ram”, Kamrup Police apprehended Saniur Rahman for “inciting communal discord” through social media, Sarma said on social media.
The attack at Baisaran near Pahalgam town on April 22 left 26 persons dead and 17 injured. The terrorists targeted tourists after asking their names to ascertain their religion, the police said. All but three of those killed were Hindu.
Since the attack, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Assam has been arresting persons accused of alleged “anti-national” activities.
This article first appeared on Scroll.in
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