Latest news with #Immigrants(ExpulsionfromAssam)Act
Indian Express
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
In CM Himanta Sarma's black and white ‘anti-foreigner' drive, how a 1950 law's greys fit in
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that his government has decided to bring into action a 1950 law to 'push back' into Bangladesh any people whom district commissioners in their respective areas 'prima facie find' to be foreigners, without going through the state's existing system of Foreigners' Tribunals (FTs). While doing so, he invoked a key Supreme Court judgment from October 2024, saying that the apex court 'empowered' the state to pursue this course of action. This announcement comes at a time when the state is already in the process of 'pushing back' people declared foreigners by FTs, having deported hundreds through an informal process in the past three weeks. The 1950 law that Sarma was referring to is the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act. A look at the extent to which it has been implemented in the past, where does it feature amidst the tangle of various citizenship processes in Assam, and what the Supreme Court said about it: The IEAA was a legislation drafted by the Centre – coming into effect on March 1, 1950 – following pressure from the Assam government at the time for measures to check migration from then East Pakistan in the years following Partition. Migration into the region was already a key political issue by then, as it is now, 75 years later. The Union government drafted the law as citizenship was a Central subject, and delegated powers to the state to expel 'undesirable' migrants – the legislation was originally even called the Undesirable Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act. In the uncertain socio-political aftermath of Partition, the Act sought to distinguish between migrants and refugees, stating that it shall not apply to any person displaced 'on account of civil disturbances or the fear of such disturbances in any area now forming part of Pakistan'. The Act added that if the Centre was of the opinion that the stay of any person in Assam – who was ordinarily resident of any place outside India and had come either before or after the commencement of the Act – 'is detrimental to the interests of the general public of India or any section thereof or of any Scheduled Tribe in Assam', it could direct such a person to 'remove himself or themselves' from Assam or India 'within such time and by such route as may be specified in the order.' The IEAA said any officer of the Union government or Assam government could exercise this power. Its implementation turned out to be short-lived. In his book The Quest for Modern Assam, historian Arupjyoti Saikia wrote that at the same time as this Act was finalised, parts of Lower Assam saw rioting between Hindus and Muslims, with anywhere between 40,000 and 1 lakh Muslims from these areas fleeing to East Pakistan. The Act hence posed problems for many Bengali Muslims who originally were from Assam, Saikia wrote, adding. '… when an old resident was asked to leave his residence in an Upper Assam town within three days (of such an order being issued to the resident) Nehru was furious'. This incidentally also coincided with the pact signed between Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Pakistani counterpart Liaquat Ali Khan to ensure the security and rights of minorities in the respective territories of Pakistan and India. On April 10, two days after the pact was signed, Nehru wrote to Assam Chief Minister Gopinath Bardoloi to stop all action under the IEAA, saying the Pakistani PM had also raised the Act in their talks. '… it would be most unwise to take any action under that Act (the IEAA) now. Our main purpose is to concentrate on getting full control (over) the situation in East and West Bengal and Assam and to remove the sense of fear from the minorities. Everything else should be subordinated to this. If we cannot succeed in this, then all kinds of other problems will overwhelm us,' Nehru wrote to Bordoloi. According to different accounts, the numbers of those affected by the IEAA remained a couple of hundred. In 1983, the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act came into force, with its provisions stating that it would have overriding effects over the 1950 Act. The IMDT Act laid out the process of determination of the nationality of a suspected illegal immigrant through tribunals and, importantly, put the onus of proving the nationality or otherwise of the person concerned on the complainant. More than 20 years after the IMDT Act was passed, the IEAA saw a revival after the Supreme Court struck down the IMDT Act as unconstitutional. In a 2005 judgment, the Court held that the IEAA, along with the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, the Foreigners' Act, 1946, and the Passport Act, 1967 – all of which the IMDT Act had been given overriding powers over – 'shall apply to the state of Assam'. The Court also said that all pending cases in this regard be shifted to FTs operating on the lines of the Foreigners' Tribunal Order 1964, thus shifting the burden of proof to the accused. FTs are quasi-judicial bodies which determine whether a person presented before them – usually referred by the border police or if listed as 'D-voters' or 'Doubtful Voters' in electoral rolls – is a 'foreigner' or an Indian citizen. Those declared foreigners have the option to appeal in the Gauhati High Court or the Supreme Court. In 1985, in line with the Assam Accord, the Citizenship Act had been amended to include Section 6A, which essentially established March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date after which anyone entering the state would be considered an 'illegal immigrant'. The constitutional validity of this was challenged in 2012, on the grounds that there could not be different cut-off dates for Indian citizenship in Assam and in the rest of India, for which it is July 1948. The petition also urged that 1951 be established as the cut-off date for inclusion in a National Register of Citizens to be prepared for Assam, instead of 1971. Hearing the plea, a two-judge Supreme Court Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton Nariman framed 13 questions on Section 6A for deliberation by a Constitutional Bench. One of these was on the IEAA. In 2024, the Constitutional Bench said that the petitioners' case was that, in the case of Assam, the IEEA should override the Foreigners' Act, 1946 – which ordinarily governs the entry, stay and departure of foreigners in India – and Section 6A, presuming a conflict between these legislations. The Court said that all these enactments can be read 'harmoniously'. By a 4-1 majority, the Court also upheld the Constitutional validity of Section 6A. But noting that the restriction of immigration post-1971 had 'not been given proper effect', issued a set of six directions, including: 'The provisions of the IEAA 1950 shall also be read into Section 6A and shall be effectively employed for the purpose of identification of illegal immigrants.' As per CM Sarma, the Supreme Court order affirmed that the long-defunct IEAA remained in force and it empowered the state to 'push back' people that district commissioners 'prima facie find' to be illegal immigrants, without referring them to FTs for scrutiny and determination of the same. Senior Advocate at the Gauhati High Court and Congress member Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Chaudhury expressed the apprehension that the implementation of this would be 'arbitrary' and result in 'a large-scale law and order situation'. 'The 1950 Act had been introduced in an extraordinary situation to deal with a particular purpose. It also categorically mentions that the presence of the persons concerned should be found to be detrimental to the interests of the country. But there was still arbitrariness built in, and the FTs had been introduced to deal with the arbitrariness,' Chaudhary said. He added that citizenship in India was overall determined by the Citizenship Act. 'The 1950 Act continues to exist alongside all these frameworks and provisions… By interpreting things in this way, the CM is trying to bypass all legal procedures for the harassment of a particular community. These actions cannot be taken on a whim, they have to be through settled procedure,' the advocate said. Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record Anas Tanwir also said that 'any expulsion without following the FT process would be contrary to law'. 'As the court states, these legislation are operating in different spheres. Because the court is saying that they can be read harmoniously doesn't mean that the Act can be used to the exclusion of existing processes and for expulsion,' he said.
Indian Express
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
In Assam, deportation shouldn't be wielded for narrow ends
The Assam government's decision to operationalise the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, to deport individuals identified as 'foreigners' by district collectors — without reference to Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) — raises urgent questions about the rule of law, institutional checks, and the rights of the vulnerable. While Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has referred to the Supreme Court's October 2024 judgment upholding Section 6A of the Citizenship Act to justify the move, citing legality cannot mask the moral and constitutional peril of bypassing due process. Illegal immigration poses a clear and present danger. But as Opposition MLAs have rightly pointed out, the state government's move risks arbitrariness and the possibility of communal profiling, bracketing innocent people, especially those from vulnerable communities, alongside the undocumented. In recent weeks, Assam has, by Sarma's own estimate, deported 330 people to Bangladesh. The resurrection of the 1950 Act would, the CM said, aid in scaling up his government's pushback against outsiders in the state. The SC's 2024 judgment did affirm that the 1950 Act could be read alongside Section 6A to strengthen the identification of and action against illegal immigrants. But it did so within the architecture of existing laws and procedures. It did not dismantle the existing framework of FTs, nor did it authorise summary expulsions on the basis of a bureaucrat's suspicions, even if the person is listed in the NRC. This distinction is crucial because any other interpretation reduces justice to executive discretion and threatens the foundational right of every individual to be heard. The Northeast, particularly Assam, sits at the heart of a complex and emotionally charged border history. Since Partition and the subsequent creation of Bangladesh, waves of migration have triggered identity anxieties and fuelled political movements, including the Assam agitation of the 1980s. The porous border has served as a conduit not only for desperate people fleeing hardship and persecution, but also for elements that threaten security and communal harmony. These realities, however, demand vigilance, and should be addressed with deliberation, not shortcuts. Even with the institutional mechanism of FTs, there have been disquieting stories of administrative failures. Sarma's polarising rhetoric of flood jihad and land jihad in reference to the migrant crisis, too, has often served to deepen communal divides. With elections coming up in Assam in a year's time, it becomes even more imperative to ensure that deportation is not wielded for ideological or electoral ends. Security threats, whether from foreign or domestic elements or geopolitical pressures, remain a priority that must be addressed with due seriousness. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs' order to crack down on undocumented foreigners, especially those from Bangladesh and Myanmar, has seen heightened action across several parts of the country. But in a region scarred by displacement, suspicion, and historical trauma, the government must distinguish between genuine security action and sweeping administrative moves that could serve political narratives more than public safety. The rule of law demands that the vulnerable — those without voice, power, or access to legal recourse — not be made collateral damage in the name of internal security.
NDTV
10-06-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
Explained: The 1950 Act That Lets Assam Expel Foreigners Directly
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said the state was actively considering using a long-forgotten law from 1950 to directly expel illegal migrants without going through the courts. The law in question, the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, empowers even a district commissioner to issue an order for the immediate removal of a person identified as an illegal immigrant. What Is The Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950? The Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, was enacted by the Parliament in the early years of independence to address a pressing crisis in Assam. During the years after the Partition in 1947, Assam witnessed a massive influx of immigrants from East Bengal, which later became East Pakistan and then Bangladesh. The migration was largely driven by communal violence, displacement and the open border. To tackle this issue, the IEAA was passed on 1 March 1950. It gave the Central Government the power to remove any person or group from Assam if their presence harmed public interest or affected the rights of Scheduled Tribes. The law also allowed the government to give these powers to local officers, such as district commissioners, so they could issue expulsion orders directly, without going through the courts. The law was applicable across India but tailored to Assam. Over time, the law was mostly ignored. When the Assam Movement started in 1979, led by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), people again raised strong concerns about illegal migration. This led to the Assam Accord in 1985, which decided that anyone who came into Assam after March 24, 1971, would be treated as a foreigner. This Act predates several key legislations that are currently used to deal with immigration issues in India, such as the Foreigners Act, 1946; Section 6A of the Citizenship Act; the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964; the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920; and the Passport Act, 1967. In October 2024, the Supreme Court of India upheld Section 6A of the Citizenship Act and clearly said that the 1950 Act was still valid. A Constitution Bench of five judges pointed out that the law allowed even a district commissioner to order the removal of illegal immigrants. The court said this Act can work alongside the Citizenship Act and the Foreigners Act to detect and deport illegal migrants. What Himanta Sarma Said "For whatever reason, our lawyers had not informed us about [the law], and we weren't aware of it either," Mr Sarma said, as reported by The Times Of India. Now that this has come to attention, the government is seriously discussing it, he said. He added that the state had already begun preparations over the last few days to act on this provision. "This time, if someone is identified as a foreigner, we will not send them to a tribunal. We will straightaway push them back." He clarified that those who have already moved court will not be affected by this. Himanta Sarma said that the process of identifying foreigners, which had slowed down due to complications around the National Register of Citizens (NRC), will now be sped up by using the legal powers available under this old but still valid Act.
Hindustan Times
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Nearly 300 illegal Bangladeshis pushed back from Assam, says CM Himanta Sarma
GUWAHATI: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday that his government has pushed back nearly 300 illegal Bangladeshis to the neighbouring country in the past few months. Addressing a one-day special session of the state assembly, Sarma said that the process to push them back will continue as per provisions of a 1950 law to identify and evict illegal foreigners. 'We will adopt two roads to deal with illegal foreigners. One is to take their cases to foreigners tribunals and the other to use provisions of the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950,' Sarma said. 'We have pushed back almost 300 people till now and none of them have returned. This process will be intensified and way fundamentalist elements from Bangladesh have taken roots in Assam, the government needs to be more active and proactive in this regard,' he added. Sarma stated that his government has decided to enforce provisions of the 1950 Act into action and empower district commissioners to identify and push back illegal Bangladeshis without referring to the foreigners tribunals. Assam has 100 such tribunals where people deemed to be illegal foreigners and who have entered the state after March 25, 2025 (the deadline set to identify illegal immigrants in the state) are referred to and their cases heard. Once they are declared as foreigners by these tribunals they are sent to detention centres set up for such illegal foreigners. They have the option of appealing their cases in higher courts with proper documents. In recent weeks, following directives from the union home ministry, several state governments, especially those ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have started drives to detect illegal Bangladeshis and initiate a process to deport them. Many such people, who are allegedly illegal Bangladeshis, have been pushed back to the no man's land between India and Bangladesh through the borders in Assam, Tripura and West Bengal. Last week, Bangladesh had refused to accept 14 such people from Assam, who were again sent back.
The Hindu
09-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Assam govt to intensify drive to identify illegal foreigners: Himanta
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday (June 9, 2025) said the State Government would enforce a 1950 law to identify and evict illegal foreigners. He claimed that the law empowers the district commissioners to declare individuals as illegal immigrants and initiate eviction proceedings. Speaking during a special day-long Assembly session, he alleged that Congress does not value 'citizenship', as out of four family members of one of its leaders, three are foreigners. It was an apparent jibe at the opposition party's State President Gaurav Gogoi, who was seated at the visitors' gallery of the Assembly in front of the treasury bench, whom the chief minister had been targeting for his alleged Pakistan links through his British wife. Mr. Sarma, replying to issues of detection and deportation of foreigners, said the state government will implement the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, for the purpose. It allows the district commissioner to declare illegal foreigners and evict them. Mr. Sarma said a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court had recently ruled that the Act is in force and the government can proceed under its provisions. He said more than 300 illegal Bangladeshis have been deported in recent months. Responding to AIUDF MLA Rafikul Islam's caution that foreigner detection should be handled carefully because 'citizenship is a most valued asset for any individual,' Mr. Sarma doubled down on his criticism of the Congress. 'Rafikul Islam has said citizenship is the most valuable asset, but it may not be so for Congress as they have people in whose family out of four members, three are foreigners,' he said. Mr. Sarma had been claiming that not only has Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi's wife retained her British citizenship, but their two minor children are also not Indian nationals.
