Calcutta High Court Says Suspicion Alone Cannot Justify Deportation

Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court has said a person cannot be labelled a Bangladeshi national and deported from India solely on the basis of suspicion, stressing that authorities must follow due process before determining citizenship.

Justice Sougata Bhattacharya made the observations on Thursday while hearing a petition challenging the detention of a man from Murshidabad and an order proposing his deportation.

The man's lawyer told the court that he had been detained since August 8 based on suspicions arising from statements made by several neighbours.

The petition was filed by the man's wife, challenging both his detention and a deportation order issued by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office. She herself had not been detained.

Justice Bhattacharya said the deportation order had been stayed for the time being. He observed that the authorities must give individuals a reasonable opportunity to establish their citizenship.

The judge questioned whether the authorities had provided the man with an opportunity to defend himself and asked why he had remained in detention for nearly two months without a clear and verifiable process to determine his nationality.

The man's lawyer, Rabiul Islam, said his client had been held for more than two months and that the detention was based on suspicions arising from statements by a few neighbours.

The judge questioned how citizenship could be conclusively determined on the basis of such allegations alone. He stressed that no one should be detained without following the appropriate legal procedures.

He also questioned how authorities could address migration across the border dating back to the 1970s, asking whether everyone who had crossed the border during that period could realistically be sent back.

The judge referred the case to the chief justice of the High Court for assignment to an appropriate bench.

The observations come amid allegations that several states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party have identified Bengali-speaking Muslim workers as undocumented Bangladeshi nationals and sent some across the border without orders from a court or tribunal.

In West Bengal, the state government announced a policy involving detention, removal of names from records and deportation of suspected Bangladeshi nationals. The policy has raised concerns among people who fear being detained and deported before their citizenship claims are properly examined.

Four Indian nationals who had spent nearly a year in Bangladesh were returned to India through the Mahadipur land port in July following a court order, according to the report.

During the hearing, Additional Advocate General Rajdeep Majumdar, representing the state government, suggested that the detained man might have obtained documents such as a voter identity card, Aadhaar card and PAN card using forged papers.

The court's observations come amid wider national debates in India over citizenship documentation, voter identification and a controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Opposition parties and civil society groups have alleged that the voter-list revision has removed the names of genuine voters and placed vulnerable communities at risk of losing access to welfare benefits. They have also raised concerns about the possibility of people being wrongly identified as foreign nationals.