Will bring back 5 people deported to Bangladesh, verify citizenship: Centre to SC

THe Centre on fri told the sublime margaret court that it would convey support the five people deported to Bangladesh in June last year and verify their claim that they were Indian citizens.“A decision has been taken and the government would bring them back and examine their status. Accordingly, we will take steps. Such a decision is being taken in the peculiar facts of the case,” solicitor general Tushar Mehta told a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant.Mehta, who appeared for the Union government, said the procedure for arranging their return will be completed within the next 10 days.The statement was made during the hearing of an appeal filed by the government challenging a September 26 order of the Calcutta high court that directed the government to bring back six persons deported to Bangladesh in June 2025.One of the six, Sunali Khatun, crossed back into India in December with her eight-year-old son after the top court told the government to let her return on humanitarian grounds. Khatun was in an advanced stage of pregnancy at the time and gave birth to her second son at a hospital in West Bengal’s Birbhum district.The bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, on Friday recorded Mehta’s statement and posted the matter for hearing in July.The court also recorded Centre’s submission that such a decision shall not be treated as a precedent for other similarly placed persons. “Their continuation of stay in India will be subject to the verification of their claim,” the bench said.The five persons in question were members of two families who resided in Delhi and worked as house help.The petitions were filed in the Calcutta high court by the father of Sunali Khatun who was staying in Delhi’s Rohini area and was deported in June last year with her son and husband. The second petition was by the cousin of another woman deported to Bangladesh with her two minor sons.To be sure, the court had previously suggested that the Centre bring the persons as a “temporary measure” to give them a full hearing to prove their Indian citizenship.In its verdict, the Calcutta high court had taken a dim view of the government’s action and noted the “hot haste” with which the police arrested them on June 21, 2025 and and produced them before the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), Delhi, which ordered their deportation on June 26 without a proper hearing.The Union government had claimed that they had failed to show identity documents. However, the high court found their grandfathers’ names in the electoral roll of West Bengal and ordered that they be brought back to India and be given a full opportunity to be heard.The high court also noted a May 2025 memo of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which allows immediate deportation only in an “emergent” situation and on completion of inquiry. The high found no evidence of an “emergent” situation in the present case and ruled that the procedures laid down in the memo ought to have been followed.“Not following such procedure and acting in hot haste to deport them is a clear violation which renders the deportation order bad in law and liable to be set aside,” the high court ruled.