In a scathing rebuke, the Supreme Court has reprimanded the Assam Government for its failure to deport individuals declared as foreigners, many of whom have been stuck in detention camps for years. The state’s defense—that it was unable to proceed with deportation due to the absence of the detainees’ addresses—was met with strong disapproval from the bench.
The Court, comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, emphasized that the government had not complied with its previous orders to provide a detailed report on the detention of 270 foreign nationals. The bench noted that the state had been expected to explain why these individuals were being held in transit camps and the steps taken toward their deportation.
The Assam Government had been under directive since December 2024 to submit a comprehensive affidavit detailing the identities of the detained individuals, the legal grounds for their detention, and the actions taken for their removal from the country. However, when the matter was revisited in January 2025, the government still failed to provide satisfactory explanations for the ongoing detentions.
The Court was particularly alarmed by the fact that some of the detained foreign nationals had been languishing in these camps for over a decade. This, the bench stressed, not only violated the Court’s order but also raised serious concerns about the lack of effort to resolve the matter in a timely and transparent manner.
The Supreme Court has now ordered the immediate deportation of the foreign nationals, urging the state to act swiftly to rectify the situation.
