The State cannot brand an individual as a Bangladeshi or execute a deportation based merely on suspicion, a Calcutta High Court judge observed in open court on Thursday.
Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya made the remarks during a hearing on a petition challenging the detention and proposed deportation of a resident from Murshidabad, reports Telegraph India.
According to the man’s legal counsel, he has been held in custody since 8 August following allegations made by a few neighbours.
The legal challenge was brought by the man’s wife against the Foreigners Regional Registration Office’s deportation order targeting the couple and against her husband’s detention, though she herself has not been detained.
Justice Bhattacharyya noted that the execution of the deportation order has been put on hold. He emphasized that state authorities are required to afford individuals adequate opportunity to demonstrate their citizenship, noting that officials appeared to have denied the petitioner such a chance.
The judge questioned why the individual remained in custody for over two months without the implementation of a clear and demonstrable process to verify his nationality.
Defence lawyer Rabiul Islam informed the court that his client’s extended detention rested entirely on unverified assertions from local neighbours.
In response, Justice Bhattacharyya asked how an individual’s nationality could be conclusively established through such neighbourly statements alone, stressing that detention without due process is unlawful.
Asking whether it was realistic to deport everyone who had crossed the border since the 1970s, the judge referred the matter to the Chief Justice of the High Court for reassignment to a proper bench.
The proceedings unfold as several BJP-governed states face accusations, dating back to mid-last year, of designating Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant workers as illegal Bangladeshis and pushing them across the border via the BSF without obtaining court or tribunal orders.
Following the BJP’s rise to power in Bengal, the new administration introduced a “detain, delete, deport” policy, instructing police forces to hold suspected Bangladeshis in holding centres and forcibly push them into Bangladesh.
After judicial intervention, four deported Indian citizens, including a woman and two children, were brought back in July through the Mahadipur land port in Malda after being held in Bangladesh for nearly a year.
Justice Bhattacharyya underscored that the government must carefully verify official documentation prior to taking deportation action, stating that casual assertions from bystanders cannot justify declaring someone an infiltrator.
Representing the state administration, Additional Advocate-General Rajdeep Majumdar submitted that the detainee may have obtained identity cards, such as a voter card, Aadhaar, and PAN card, using forged documentation.
The High Court’s observations coincide with widespread national friction regarding documentation, citizenship, and voter rolls triggered by a controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) that purged roughly 13 crore voters nationwide.
Opposition parties and civil society organizations maintain that millions of genuine citizens were disenfranchised to favor the BJP, leaving many affected individuals in Bengal cut off from government welfare programs and living under constant threat of deportation.
Nationwide protests have intensified with demands for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, who is viewed as the primary architect and enforcer of the SIR drive.
