Supreme Court Orders Interim Release Of Elderly Woman Confined At Assam Foreigner Detention Centre For Over A Year

In relief to an elderly woman declared 'foreigner' and detained at an Assam detention centre, the Supreme Court recently passed orders for release as an interim measure, noting that the woman had already spent 1 year and 4 months in detention and prima facie, she was not able to appear before the Foreigners' Tribunal to make out her case.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan passed the order without going into the merits of the matter.

"Prima facie, it appears on plain reading of the judgment that for some reason or the other, the appellant was not able to appear before the Foreigner's Tribunal and make good her case that she is not a foreigner but arrived in India within the time period stipulated under Section 6 (A) of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1955", it observed.

Briefly put, the appellant was detained after she was declared a foreigner by the Foreigners' Tribunal on the ground that she entered the state after the cutoff date of 25.03.1971. Challenging the Tribunal's order, she filed a writ petition before the Gauhati High Court, but the same was dismissed. A review petition against the said order was also not entertained. Ultimately, the matter reached the Supreme Court.

The Court noted that whenever any individual is declared as a foreigner/illegal immigrant, they are confined to a detention centre/correctional centre. If the authorities are not able to deport them within a span of 2 years, then they are released, subject to certain terms and conditions.

In the facts of the case, it further observed that as per the state's affidavit, no proceedings had been initiated in respect of any other family member of the appellant.

Ultimately, the Court ordered the appellant's interim release from the detention centre, subject to conditions, including - execution of bond with two sureties of Rs.5,000/-, specification of verifiable stay address after release, capturing and storage of biometrics in secure database before release, and reporting to a police station once every week.

"A quarterly report to be submitted by the Superintendent of Police (Border) to the Foreigners Tribunal regarding appearance of such released declared foreigner to concerned Police Station and in case of violation of condition, the DFN will be apprehended and produced before Foreigners Tribunal", the Court added.

Appearance: Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, AoR Talha Abdul Rahman and Advocates Rupali Samuel, M Shaz Khan, Faizan Ahmad, Sudhanshu Tewari, Rafid Akhter, Unni S, Deepesh Agarwal (for petitioner); ASG Aishwarya Bhati (for Union)

Case Title: ANOWARA KHATOON @ ANOWARA KHATUN VERSUS UNION OF INDIA & ORS., SLP(C) Nos.29968-29969/2024