Assam ‘Re-Arrests': NHRC Complaint, Pleas in Courts Reflect Fears of Forced Deportation

The Wire

3 days ago

New Delhi: A Gauhati high court lawyer has filed an urgent complaint with the National Human Rights Commission, noting that Indian citizens and declared foreigners who had been released earlier are being re-arrested and detained, and facing the threat of forced deportation.
Advocate A. Wadud Aman said in his complaint that the re-arrested and detained individuals had not violated any conditions of their release, but were still picked up by the Assam Police.
'Shockingly, these individuals are now being re-arrested and detained again as of 23.05.2025, without any fresh violation or breach to the Supreme Court's conditions for release, and now are being forcibly deported — 14 such people have been pushed to No Man's Land between India and Bangladesh — in complete disregard of the Constitution of India and international human rights norms,' Wadud says in his complaint.
The advocate has asked the NHRC to take suo motu cognisance of the 'arbitrary re-arrest and detention', seek a status report from the chief secretary of the Assam government and the Director General of Assam Police and intervene to prevent forced deportation. It also asks the commission to direct the state government to immediately release the re-arrested individuals, recommend the formulation of a humane and transparent policy for cases of disputed citizenship, as well as suggest compensation and rehabilitation for those who had already endured prolonged unlawful detention and were forced into it yet again.
The intervention has, as per the complaint, been sought 'in the interest of justice, liberty, and constitutional dignity of those who have long suffered the indignity of statelessness, and are now being subjected to further inhuman treatment.'
The complaint notes that the detainees who had previously been released on the basis of Supreme Court orders from 2019 and 2020 had 'complied scrupulously with the conditions of release, including periodic appearances before police stations, and resided with their family members and community in India.' The actions of the state, therefore it says, are violative of Articles 21 (right to life and liberty), 14 (right to equality before law and non arbitrariness in state action) and 22 (protection from arbitrary arrest) of the Indian constitution. It also points out that Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, stipulates that bail once granted cannot be set aside unless specific orders of violation are shown and fresh proceedings are initiated.
Finally, the complainant argues that forced deportation without exhausting all remedies under the Foreigners Act 1946 and the Citizenship Act, 1955, and without any hearing, amounts to refoulement, which is prohibited under customary international human rights law. This includes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which India is party.
Speaking to The Wire , Wadud said: 'We are approaching almost every forum, I have sent a contempt notice to Superintendent of Police, Dhubri. We have also filed a petition before the Gauhati high court and an Article 32 petition before the Supreme Court.' The NHRC is yet to reply or take cognisance of their petition. Wadud added.
But, he said: 'we will do everything permissible within the ambit of law to uphold the due process of law.'
A tale of two brothers
Meanwhile, the Gauhati high court, on May 29, asked the Assam government to apprise them of the whereabouts of two brothers who too have been caught up in this swirl of repeated-detention. The duo – according to a petition filed by their nephew – are labourers hailing from an economically disadvantaged background. They were declared foreigners by a tribunal in 2017 but were released after over two years of incarceration, pursuant to orders on the top court.
'Despite their compliance of the bail conditions, the detenues were (re)detained on 25.05.2025 and apparently sent to the Matia Transit Camp,' the petition says.
It also argues that they simply need time to challenge the opinion that had deemed them foreigner and requests the court to ensure that no coercive action is taken until they have had the opportunity to challenge the opinion.
'The petitioner has reasonable apprehension that his uncles, the detenues namely Abu Bakkar Siddik and Akbar Ali, will be pushed against their will into Bangladesh,' the petition further adds.
'During the hearing the state counsel admitted that Saddik and Ali have indeed been detained and are now in the custody of Assam Border Police,' Wadud, who is representing the petitioner, told The Wire.
The next hearing is slated to take place on June 4, during which as per the court order, the standing counsel for foreigner tribunal matters 'shall obtain instruction as to the status of the said two uncles of the petitioner including where they are currently lodged.'
Meanwhile, a habeus corpus petition filed in the Supreme Court, notes that the petitioner's mother was abruptly called to a police station on the morning of May 24, and has since been inaccessible. It requests the court to enable the detenu's release and to protect her from ' the real and imminent apprehension of expulsion and 'push back' operations in Assam'. Prior to her earlier release in 2019, the mother had already completed three years in detention. Her determination as a foreigner on merits is also pending adjudication at the Supreme Court, which had admitted her plea in 2017.
Assam government and a 'new' phenomenon?
On May 10, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said 'infiltration is a big issue ' and announced the state government's decision to 'not go through the legal process'. He added:
'Earlier, the approach was to arrest individuals and bring them under the Indian legal system…We have now decided we will not bring them inside the country. We will push them back. Pushing them back is a new phenomenon…'
According to Sarma, many who were formerly detained at the Matia transit centre in Assam's Goalpara, including declared foreigners who had served their sentences and the Rohingya, have already been 'pushed back'. This is why, as per him, the number of detainees at Matia had dwindled from 270 to a reported 30-40.
The petition by Wadud at the Gujarat high court, however, noted:
'In a process of regular deportation, foreigners are handed over to the authorities of the receiving country. ln pushback, however, individuals are simply pushed to the border. It is an inherently dangerous and life threatening process.'
Meanwhile, Supreme Court senior advocate Sanjay Hegde told The Wire that 'the mere inability of somebody to conclusively prove Indian citizenship before an Indian tribunal does not automatically make the person a citizen of another country, to which the person can be deported.'
'You can deport people to a country which is willing to receive them. But right now it does not appear that Bangladesh is willing to do so,' he added.
Hegde also pointed out that the concept of 'pushback' is only applicable when you 'catch people at a border before they enter and you are pushing them back.'
'It does not apply to throwing people across the border like unwanted garbage.'
On May 27, according to media reports , at least 14 alleged illegal immigrants were picked up from their homes, taken to the detention camp at Matia and subsequently pushed across the India-Bangladesh border. According to Deccan Herald, they remained stranded on the zero-line for hours as the Border Guards Bangladesh denied them entry. Subsequently, however, they were reportedly allowed to shelter in a nearby camp.
On the same day, the BSF released a statement saying that it had 'successfully thwarted an infiltration attempt by a large group of Bangladeshi nationals from the Indo-Bangladesh Boundary in South Salmara Mankachar district, Assam'.