NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed Assam government for its failure to detect illegal Bangladeshi migrants in the state and expressed concern over them getting a say in electoral politics by being enrolled on the electoral list and casting votes in the election.

Without mincing a word, a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna severely criticised the state government for favouring conditional release of foreigners who are in detention centres and seeking court’s permission for it. As per the state government, there are more than One lakh Bangladeshi migrants in the state and only 900 have so far been traced out.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state, informed the court that after holding consultation with the Centre, the government came to the decision that those foreigners who had spent more than five years in detention centres be released on execution of the bond and they would report to police every week.

The bench got livid after hearing the contention and said, “You are the government but you are not following the Constitution and you expect the court to pass illegal order to allow such people to live in the country who are otherwise not entitled.”

“First those people should not live in detention centres at all and they should be deported. You have detected only 900 out of more than one lakh people who were declared foreigners. They have now mingled with the local population and most of them are on the electoral list. They are taking part in the political process of the country and casting their votes in elections. Is this how your government functioning,” the bench observed.

The chief secretary of Assam, who was present in court, had to face the ire of the bench for contending that decision of Foreign Tribunal might not be final and its decision might not be accepted by the authority. “This man does not know what he is saying. Does he deserve to be chief secretary? We are going to issue a notice to him for making slanderous statements against the law and misleading the court. You have no right to continue in the office,” the bench said.

“The opinion of foreign tribunal may or may not be accepted by the referral authority. Fresh reference may be initiated against such proceeded person and fresh notices may be issued by the tribunal,” the state government said in its affidavit which was strongly objected by the bench. The chief secretary also apologised and told the court that a fresh affidavit will be filed.

At the end of the proceedings, the bench, however, mellowed down towards the chief secretary and asked lawyers to offer him a seat to sit down. The state government had earlier claimed it had identified 46,000 foreigners in the last four years compared to 65,000 identified in the last 30 years.

