SC raps Centre, Assam on Bangladeshi migrants

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rapped the Centre and Assam government for “dragging their feet” on the illegal migrants issue and rejected their affidavits on steps taken to check influx of illegal Bangladesh nationals into the northeastern state through the porous Indo-Bangla border.

“We have seen your (Ministry of Home Affairs) counter (affidavit) and state’s counter and we are left with the impression that both the Union of India and the state are dragging their feet,” a bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi and R F Nariman said. The bench then appointed senior advocate Upamanyu Hazarika as court commissioner to physically verify the fencing and security across the Indo-Bangla border running through Assam and file a final report by June 30. It also asked the MHA to pay Rs five lakh to the lawyer for this purpose.

It expressed dissatisfaction over non-selection of the Presiding Officers and Members of the 64 Tribunals, sanctioned by the Centre which would taken up the issue of citizenship of migrants, by the Gauhati High Court.

The bench directed the high court to prepare the list of presiding officers and members of <g data-gr-id="16">tribunal</g> within 45 days.

“The queries had been made in February <g data-gr-id="17">and</g> unfortunately, they have not been responded to,” the bench said.