The Supreme Court on Tuesday hauled up the Assam government for dragging its feet over the deportation of individuals declared as foreigners. [Rajubala v. Union of India].A Bench of Justices AS Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan told the Chief Secretary of Assam, who was present for the hearing virtually,"Even without an address, you can deport them. You can’t continue to detain them indefinitely...Once they are held to be foreigners, they should be deported immediately. You know their citizenship status. Then how can you wait till their address is received? It is for the other country to decide where they should go.".When counsel for the State asked the Court where these people should be deported to in the absence of an address, Justice Oka said,"You deport them to the capital city of the country. Suppose the person is from Pakistan—you know the capital city of Pakistan? How can you keep them detained here, saying their foreign address is not known? Why have you not mentioned the date on which the verification was sent to the MEA?".Even as the counsel pleaded for time to file a proper affidavit in the matter, the Court said,"We will issue a perjury notice to you (Assam government). As a State government, you are supposed to come clean.".At this point, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared and said,"I can assure your lordships, I have spoken to the highest authority of the executive. There may be some lacunae, my apologies."When it was pointed out that the State government had not revealed the true position to the Court, SG Mehta said that he would discuss it with the concerned officers and file consolidated documents."On the flip side, the state exchequer is spending on the persons detained for so many years. This concern doesn’t seem to be affecting the government," Justice Oka observed.Mehta then assured the Court that he would sit with Union Ministry of External Affairs officials and find a solution, since the issue was not a State subject, and had to be diplomatically dealt with by the Centre..The Court ultimately directed the State of Assam to start the deportation process immediately, even without foreign addresses of such persons. The State was also instructed to file a detailed affidavit regarding the nationality verification process, including dates of actions taken, within two weeks. The Central government was given a month to clarify how to handle stateless individuals. The Court also ordered Assam to ensure better conditions in detention centres, forming a committee to inspect facilities fortnightly. The matter was posted for hearing on February 25.
