NEW DELHI: The Center on Friday informed the Supreme Court that it has decided to return some people, who were earlier deported to Bangladesh, to India and then verify their claim to Indian citizenship.
Taking into account the facts and circumstances of the case and not treating it as a precedent to be followed in other matters, the government has decided to send them back, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, told the bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant.
“The government will take them back and then examine their situation. Depending on the outcome, we will take steps accordingly,” Mehta told the bench, which also included Justices Joymalia Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi.
The chief legal officer said that it may take 8 to 10 days to bring these people back to India.
The court adjourned the matter for hearing in July.
The Supreme Court was hearing a plea from the Center challenging the Calcutta High Court’s September 26, 2025 order by which it quashed the central government’s decision to deport Sonali Khatun and others to Bangladesh, calling it “illegal”.
On December 3 last year, the Supreme Court allowed “on humanitarian grounds” for Khatun and her eight-year-old child to enter India, months after they were pushed to Bangladesh.
It asked the West Bengal government to take care of the minor and directed the chief medical officer of Birbhum district to provide all possible medical assistance to the pregnant Khatun, including free delivery.
On April 24, the Supreme Court gave a last chance to the Center and asked its lawyers to take instructions and get back to it on the issue.
Senior lawyers Kapil Sibal and Sanjay Hegde, representing Khatun’s father, Budu Sikh, said it was “somewhat unfair” on the part of the Center which had not informed the court of its views on the matter.
Earlier, the Supreme Court referred to Mehta’s submission that the competent authority had agreed to allow the woman and her child to enter the country on purely humanitarian grounds without prejudice to the rights and claims, and they would be kept under surveillance.
The families, who have been working as daily wage laborers in Sector 26 of Delhi’s Rohini area for over two decades, were arrested by police on June 18 last year on suspicion of being Bangladeshi, and then pushed across the border on June 27, Sikh claimed.
On September 26 last year, the Supreme Court overturned the Centre’s decision to deport Khatun and Sweety Bibi, residents of Birbhum district in West Bengal, along with their families to Bangladesh after describing them as “illegal immigrants.”
The Supreme Court had directed the Center to ensure the return of the six deported citizens to India within a month and rejected the government’s appeal to grant them temporary residence based on the order.
The Supreme Court had issued two orders in connection with the habeas corpus petition filed by Sheikh, who claimed that his daughter along with her husband Danish Sheikh and five-year-old son had been detained in Delhi and taken to Bangladesh.
Amir Khan filed another petition from the same Birbhum district alleging a similar allegation stating that his sister Sweety Bibi and her two children were detained by Delhi Police from the same area and were pushed to the neighboring state.
The Bangladeshi police reportedly arrested the deportees.
The Supreme Court noted that the Center had stated in its affidavit that the FRRO, Delhi as a civil authority, repatriated illegal immigrants from Bangladesh as per instructions dated May 2, 2025 issued by the Union Home Ministry in a memorandum.
The memorandum, which details the protocols to be followed for deportation, stipulates that in respect of Bangladeshi/Myanmar nationals identified as residing in an unauthorized manner in any particular State or Union Territory, an investigation will be conducted by the government of the State or Union Territory concerned, after which deportation will be pursued.
The Supreme Court noted in its order that “the deportation proceedings were carried out in haste” by the authorities and in violation of the provisions of the memorandum.
“The detainees have their connections residing in the State of West Bengal… This kind of over-zealousness in deporting detainees, as seen here, is open to misunderstanding and disturbs the judicial climate in the country,” the order said.
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