New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday told the Union Government that the Standards Operating Process (SOP) has been asked to authorize a nationwide drive under the notification of May 2 and to authorize a nationwide drive to identify illegal immigrants, insisting that the Center is being taken out to overcome the allegations.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Jomalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi noted the sensitivity of the issue, given that the protection of national security and resources was paramount, the government should clarify its attitude in view of the allegations that the language alone was being used as a value of foreign origin.
The bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, “We want to clarify you that a certain prejudice is sought to be displayed in the petition regarding the practice of powers … They use the language to guess a foreigner.”
On its behalf, the Center defended exile practice. “India is not a world capital for illegal migrants,” Mehta said, “unfortunate” said that the West Bengal government was supporting the petitioner organization challenging the drive. ” He said that the problem of infiltration was eating in resources for citizens. “Unfortunately, there are immigrants using resources for Indian citizens and some governments are concluded on them,” they presented.
During the exchange, Justice Kant, who had earlier taken a decision on Section 6A of the Citizenship Act that graded citizenship on Bangladesh’s migrants, accepted the scale of the problem. “There is also a lot of illegal immigration and we cannot ignore it,” he said.
At the same time, the bench pointed out India’s shared cultural heritage with its neighbors: “This case includes two sensitive issues – one is the protection of national security, integrity and resources for us, which should not be said that it is paramount importance.
The dispute arises from the notification of the Ministry of Home Affairs on May 2, which authorized verification and custody of suspected illegal migrants across the country. In earlier hearing on August 14, the court refused to remain the order, but sought reactions from the Center and several states on creating an inter-state mechanism to prevent harassment of real citizens.
On Friday, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who was present for West Bengal’s Migrant Workers Welfare Board, argued that the Bengali -speaking Muslims of West Bengal were being targeted and detained on suspicion of being “Bangladeshi”. He also said that migrant workers were being subjected to arbitrary custody in violation of their fundamental rights for freedom and dignity.
“This pregnant woman has been pushed out just because she spoke Bengali,” Bhushan said, referring to a Somali Bibi, who was allegedly sent to Bangladesh without any determination of her citizenship. He argued that exile was not only illegal because it lacked proper process, but also because there was no evidence of the system with Dhaka to accept such individuals.
“Circular officers enabled officers to deport individuals without any proper determination whether they are foreigners or not. How can any rights push anyone without any procedure?”
Responding, the bench said that the Sangh’s reply would be considered at the next hearing on 11 September.
At the same time, it agreed with Bhushan that the Calcutta High Court should not have demarcated the captive corpus petition in the case of Somali Bibi on the basis that a large petition was pending before the Supreme Court. The bench ordered, “We request the High Court to take the captive corpus immediately to find out the status of Somali Bibi and her relatives and pass the orders rapidly according to the law.”
It also underlined the legal gap between “pushbacks” on the border and exile of people found within Indian territory. The court remarked, “Forces can push back those who are trying to enter illegally. However, once they are already within the area, the law determines a process,” The court commented, this is a “complex issue” in which different countries have to adopt different policies.
