SC pulls up Assam Govt. for not deporting foreign nationals on ground of not knowing their addresses

“We expected the State to put on record reasons for detaining 270 foreign nationals in the transit camp and details of the steps taken by the State Government for deporting the detenues in the detention camp.”

Deport Foreign National

Supreme Court: The Division Bench of Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, JJ. criticised the Assam Government’s actions of not deporting persons declared as foreigners and for keeping them in detention centres indefinitely.

Assam Government submitted that the steps were not taken as the foreign addresses of the detained persons were not known. However, the expressed strong displeasure over the same and directed the State to immediately initiate the process of deporting the persons who have been declared foreigners.

Previously, vide order dated 09-12-2024, the Court directed the State of Assam to file a comprehensive affidavit to bring on record the following aspects/documents:

  1. The names of the persons who are detained in the detention camp;

  2. Documents justifying the detention in the detention camp; and

  3. The steps taken by the State Government for deporting the detenues in the detention camp.

On 22-01-2025, the Court said that the State was expected to show the reasons for detaining 270 foreign nationals in the transit camp and details of the steps taken by the State Government for deporting the detenues in the detention camp. The Court noted that some of the foreigners were languishing in the camps for about 10 years or more. The Court also said that the affidavit did not give any justification for detaining 270 persons and steps taken to deport them were not set out, which was a gross violation of the order of this Court.

[Rajubala Das v. Union of India, 2025 SCC OnLine SC 316, decided on: 04-02-2025]


Advocates who appeared in this case:

For Petitioner(s) :Mr. Colin Gonsalves, Sr. Adv. Mr. Kamran Khwaja, Adv. M/S. Kings And Alliance LLP, AOR

For Respondent(s) :Mr. K M Nataraj, A.S.G. Mr. R Bala, Sr. Adv. Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Vatsal Joshi, Adv. Mrs. Swati Ghirdiyal, Adv. Mr. Balaji Srinivasan, Adv. Mr. Akshay Amritanshu, Adv. Ms. Sweksha, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Shankar Dixit, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Mr. Shadan Farasat, Sr. Adv. Ms. Rupali Samuel, Adv. Ms. Mreganka Kukreja, Adv. Mr. Yash S. Vijay, AOR Mr. Dipesh Agarwala, Adv. Mr. Mohammed Afeef, Adv. Dr. Aditya Sondhi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Talha Abdul Rahman, AOR Mr. Rupali Samuel, Adv. 1 Mr. M Shaz Khan, Adv. Mr. Faizan Ahmad, Adv. Mr. Sudhanshu Tewari, Adv. Mr. Rafid Akhter, Adv. Mr. Anubhav Kumar, Adv.

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