The Center on Friday told the Supreme Court that it would return the five people who were deported to Bangladesh in June last year and verify their claim that they are Indian citizens.
“A decision has been taken and the government will take them back and examine their situation. Accordingly, we will take steps. Such a decision is being taken in light of the strange facts of the case,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.
Mehta, who represented the Union government, said the procedures for arranging their return would be completed within the next 10 days.
The statement came during the hearing of the appeal filed by the government challenging the Calcutta High Court’s September 26 order that directed the government to return six people deported to Bangladesh in June 2025.
One of the six women, Sonali Khatun, returned to India in December with her eight-year-old son after the Supreme Court asked the government to allow her to return on humanitarian grounds. Khatun was in an advanced stage of pregnancy at the time, and gave birth to her second son in a hospital in Birbhum district in West Bengal.
The bench, also comprising Justices Joymalia Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, recorded Mehta’s statement on Friday and sent the matter for hearing in July.
The court also recorded the Centre’s assertion that such a decision should not be treated as a precedent for other persons in the same situation. “Their continued stay in India will be subject to verification of their claim,” the bench said.
The five persons concerned were members of two families residing in Delhi and working as domestic helpers.
The petitions were filed in the Calcutta High Court by Sonali Khatun’s father who was residing in Delhi’s Rohini area and was deported in June last year along with her son and husband. The second petition was submitted by the cousin of another woman who was deported to Bangladesh with her two minor children.
To be sure, the court had earlier suggested that the Center bring in the people as an “interim measure” to give them a full hearing to prove their Indian citizenship.
In its judgement, the Calcutta High Court took a dim view of the government’s actions, noting the “extreme haste” with which police arrested them on June 21, 2025 and brought them before the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Delhi, which ordered their deportation on June 26 without a proper hearing.
The Union government alleged that she failed to produce identity documents. However, the Supreme Court found their grandparents’ names in the electoral roll of West Bengal and ordered them to be sent back to India and given full opportunity to be heard.
The Supreme Court also referred to the Home Office memorandum issued in May 2025, which allows immediate deportation only in an “emergency” situation and upon completion of the investigation. The judge found no evidence of an “emergency” situation in the present case and ruled that the procedures set forth in the memorandum must be followed.
The Supreme Court ruled that “failing to follow such a procedure and acting hastily to deport them is a clear violation that makes the deportation order legally invalid and voidable.”
