No deportation to Bangladesh on suspicion: Calcutta HC

A Calcutta High Court judge said on Thursday that authorities cannot declare someone a Bangladeshi and deport them merely on suspicion, stressing the need for due process and an opportunity to prove citizenship.

Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya made the observation while hearing a petition challenging the detention of a Murshidabad man and a deportation order against him and his wife. The man’s lawyer said he had been detained since August 8 based on statements by a few neighbours, according Telegraph. 

The judge said the deportation order had been kept in abeyance and questioned why the man had remained in custody for two months without a clear process to establish his nationality.

“How can a person’s nationality be conclusively established merely on the basis of such assertions?” the judge asked, stressing that the authorities must give people a fair opportunity to prove their citizenship.

Additional advocate-general Rajdeep Majumdar, representing the state government, suggested that the man might have obtained documents, including voter, Aadhaar and PAN cards, using forged papers.
Justice Bhattacharyya referred the matter to the chief justice of the high court for assignment to an appropriate bench.

The case comes amid allegations that several BJP-ruled states have detained Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant workers as suspected Bangladeshis and pushed them across the border without court or tribunal orders.

After the BJP came to power in West Bengal, the state government announced a “detain, delete, deport” policy targeting suspected Bangladeshis. Four Indian citizens, including a woman and two children, were brought back from Bangladesh through the Mahadipur land port in Malda in July following court orders, after spending nearly a year there.

The court’s observations come amid a wider debate over citizenship documents and electoral identity following a controversial special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Opposition parties and civil society groups have alleged that the exercise excluded millions of genuine voters, particularly in West Bengal, leaving many fearful of losing welfare benefits or facing deportation.