‘SC said declared foreigners should be deported, Assam govt has taken it to mean something very different and for push backs’: Petitioner
“We support the completion of the NRC exercise, which is on hold. This is the only solution to the foreigners’ issue – not the arbitrary border police and Foreigners’ Tribunals,” says Taison Hussain, president of All BTC Minority Students’ Union
The ABMSU, headed by Taison Hussain, had challenged in Supreme Court the Assam government's move to "push back" declared foreigners into Bangladesh. (Facebook) 
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea challenging the Assam government’s move to “push back” alleged illegal immigrants and those declared foreigners by the state’s Foreigners’ Tribunals (FTs) into Bangladesh. A Bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and S C Sharma instead asked the petitioner, the All BTC Minority Students’ Union (ABMSU), a social organisation based in the Bodoland Territorial region, to approach the Gauhati High Court.
The Indian Express spoke to ABMSU president Taison Hussain on their attempt to challenge the Assam government’s steps. Excerpts:
* Why did you approach the Supreme Court over the issue?
The foreigners’ matter has been going on in Assam for a very long time. The FTs function in an arbitrary manner and many of the people declared foreigners are done so ex-parte (proceedings conducted and orders passed in their absence). Then last month we started seeing people getting picked up by the police – these people have been out on bail on the Supreme Court’s orders, many have approached higher courts to appeal against their FT orders and have stay orders on action against them — and since then, no one knows where they have been taken. When relatives go to the police, the police say they don’t know (anything). That means the people are missing. Then two days after all this first started, we started seeing videos of people stuck in the no man’s land between Bangladesh and India. When we found out, our organisation demonstrated against this and contacted officers concerned, but we didn’t get any positive results.
There was a Supreme Court order that declared foreigners in Matia (Assam’s dedicated detention camp) should be deported, which the state government has taken to mean something completely different and is now doing ‘push backs’. Because of this, we approached the Supreme Court.
* In what way do you think the state is acting differently from the Court’s directions?
The Supreme Court had said that if these people are Bangladeshi citizens and the state knows this, they need to be deported. We have never objected to anyone being deported in a legal manner. But these people were born here. If there is a mistake in their name in some records, if there is some irregularity in age, they are declared foreigners by FTs. Many have approached higher courts and others still have the option to do that. They can’t just be picked up. They have not violated their bail ground rules. But they were picked up suddenly at night. We think this is a misinterpretation and violation of what the Supreme Court said. There is a proper procedure for deportation. But here, nothing has been done formally and these people were just pushed into no man’s land. No notice was given to them before it was done and, till date, the government has not given an official statement on what exactly is being done.
* Is this a new turn in the state’s long-standing citizenship issue?
At a recent press conference, the CM (Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma) said the process of detecting foreigners by the border police had been stopped for a few years because of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) updation process. Now we think that because the Assembly elections are coming (in 2026), this decades-old issue is being raised again. He (Sarma) has taken steps to deport alleged foreigners to gain political mileage.
We support the completion of the NRC exercise, which has been on hold for more than five years now. This is the only solution to the foreigners’ issue – not the arbitrary border police and Foreigners’ Tribunals – and the only way to put an end to it for good.
* Now that the Supreme Court has declined to hear your plea, what will your next step be?
The Supreme Court has not said that our case does not have merit. It has said that because there are some individual cases and that this is happening in the state, we should approach the Gauhati High Court. We will file a writ petition in the Gauhati High Court this week.
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