india

Updated: Apr 09, 2019 22:28 IST

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Assam government to submit a fresh affidavit enumerating the possible “ways and means” that can be adopted to release illegal immigrants held in detention centres for a long time.

The state admitted that its track record of tracing illegal immigrants who have merged with the local population has been “poor”.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi took note of the state’s submission that any observations by the court at this stage may have an impact on the Lok Sabha elections in the state and, therefore, listed the matter for further hearing on April 25. Assam goes to polls on April 23.

But the court ordered the state chief secretary, who was present in court pursuant to a direction during the last hearing, to hold a meeting of all stakeholders and come out with an affidavit before April 23. Details of how Assam plans to release illegal immigrants living in detention centres have to be incorporated in the affidavit.

At the outset, the court threw a volley of questions at the chief secretary, asking him to spell out what steps the state has taken to trace 44,000 foreigners who are staying in Assam illegally, despite the tribunals holding them as illegal immigrants. The top court noted the state has so far identified 46,000 people as illegal immigrants. However, only 2,000 have been staying in detention centres. Between 2013 and 2019, 166 foreigners have been deported.

“Isn’t your solemn duty to deport all the foreigners who have been declared to be foreigners? Tell us what you have done to trace the foreigners,” CJI Gogoi asked the chief secretary. Admitting the track record of the law-enforcement agencies and the state has been poor in tracing them, the chief secretary said the government had proposed measures to track the illegal immigrants.But the bench refused to read the documents the chief secretary wanted to hand over and said: “We want results.”

The court was also informed that at least 1,000 new tribunals would be required to hear appeals filed by those who would not find their names in the final list of the National Register of Citizens, to be published on July 31.