[Assam] The Assam Tribune news

[kamal deka]

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Foreigners’ Tribunals serve no purpose: HC
Staff Reporter
 GUWAHATI, March 27 – Observing that no useful purpose has been served by
the Foreigners Tribunals given the easy manner in which even the detected
and deported illegal Bangladeshi migrants continue to migrate to Assam, the
Gauhati High Court has asked the Centre, the State Government, the State DGP
and the Superintendent of Police, Karbi Anglong to clarify their stands on
the matter while delivering its judgement on a writ petition WP (C)
4,171/2008.

In the above case, the petitioner, Ananda Kundu of Hojai, Nagaon, after
being declared to be a foreigner by a Foreigners Tribunal and subsequently
deported to Bangladesh, came back to Assam easily and even invoked the writ
jurisdiction of the high court.

“…The establishment of Foreigners’ Tribunals and their decisions, even after
being upheld by this court, has not yielded the desired result. The illegal
Bangladeshis could easily migrate to Assam without any valid documents and
stay here at par with Indian citizens with all the rights, including the
right of franchise. Even after passing of the orders by the Tribunal and
upholding of the same by the writ court, the authority is not in a position
to deport the foreign nationals,” Justice BK Sharma said in his order dated
March 26, 2008 judgement.

“In most of the cases the foreigners do the vanishing act, which otherwise
should be an alarming concern for the State and Central Governments,” it
added.

Referring to the Supreme Court’s observations in the Sarbananda Sonowal case
equating the unabated cross-border infiltration from Bangladesh with
external aggression, the High Court said that unless “prompt and useful”
action was taken by the Central and State governments what was in store for
Assam “can well be imagined.”