The Gauhati High Court on Thursday issued notice to the counsel of the State to obtain instructions on the whereabouts of two residents of Assam’s Kamrup district, whose family claims they have no information about them since the Assam police detained them on May 25. The petition was filed on behalf of the two individuals, Abu Bakkar Siddik and Akbar Ali, who had been declared foreigners by the state’s Foreigner Tribunals in 2017. The petitioner, Torap Ali, a nephew of the two men, has stated that he apprehends that his uncles “may be in danger of being pushed illegally into Bangladesh”. The petition states that while being detained on May 25, the two men “were not given the opportunity to speak to their family members or to approach legal counsel”, and adds that “authorities have been very discreet.” During the hearing on Thursday, J Payang, the counsel representing the police respondents, said that the two men are in the custody of the border police. In the order, the High Court bench of Justices Kalyan Rai Surana and Malasri Nanda issued notice to the respondents, which includes the Union of India, the State of Assam, the Assam police and the district administration, “to receive instructions on the status of the said two uncles of the petitioners, including where they are currently lodged.” The writ petition seeks the stay of “arbitrary ‘push back’” of the two men and their release on their previous bail. According to the petition, the two men had been placed in detention in Goalpara jail after being declared foreigners in 2017 and had been released on bail in 2020 following directions by the Supreme Court that those in detention for over two years may be released on bail. It also states that the two had approached the High Court against the FT orders, which had been dismissed by the court. The petition argues that the two men “have not had an opportunity to effectively assail the opinions of the Foreigners Tribunal on merits” and that “arresting an individual and making arrangements for deportation without allowing them (to) exhaust their legal remedies available under Indian law against the declaration of the Foreigners Tribunals is a gross violation of the fundamental rights of the individual.” It also argues that the Foreigners Tribunals only declare that an individual has not been able to prove they are a citizen of India, and their order does not entail “positive determination of nationality”, which is “essential to facilitate detention.” “That pushback before such determination is conclusively made by all forums available to an individual amounts to arbitrary deprivation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India,” the petition states. Senior advocate Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Chaudhury argued for the petitioner on Tuesday. The next hearing has been scheduled for June 4.
