GUWAHATI, SEP 9:

The Gauhati High Court has directed the Assam government to pay Rs 2 lakh as interim compensation to the husband of Nagaon resident Mumtaz Begum, who was declared a non-citizen by a foreigners tribunal and pushed into Bangladesh without informing her family about her expulsion.

A division bench of Justices Kalyan Rai Surana and Susmita Phukan Khaund, in its September 3 order, impleaded the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) as a respondent to a petition by the woman’s husband, Mujammel Hoque, to facilitate her repatriation.

It cited a Supreme Court judgment to say that Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees protection of life and personal liberty not only to citizens but also to non-citizens.

The bench observed that the woman was prevented from exhausting her right to move this court by way of a writ petition to challenge the Foreigners Tribunal’s May 30 opinion about her citizenship.

Mumtaz Begum was declared a foreigner on June 6, 2019, by a foreigners tribunal in a case registered in 2015.

These tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies that decide the citizenship status of people living in Assam who are suspected to be foreigners. According to protocol, after tribunals reach a decision about the citizenship status of these people, they are sent back to the country of their origin after due process by the MEA, provided they do not move the Gauhati High Court.

Around 100 foreigners tribunals are functioning in Assam.

Mumtaz Begum had moved the high court, which on April 20 this year set aside the tribunal’s opinion for not discussing evidence and directed her to appear before the tribunal on or before May 30.

According to Mujammel Hoque’s petition, Mumtaz Begum appeared before the foreigners tribunal on May 30 along with her counsel and placed the high court order before it. The petitioner claimed that after her counsel left, personnel from the Juria police station arrested her.

She was kept at Juria police station and then at the Nagaon Sadar police station, before being shifted to a transit camp at Matia in Goalpara on May 31 and subsequently to a holding centre at Eraligool in Sribhumi district, Hoque said in his plea, seeking that his wife be produced before the court to examine whether that detention is lawful.

He told the court that his wife was handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) on June 13.

According to the high court’s September 3 order, the BSF affidavit stated that she was “sent back to Bangladesh on June 14, 2026”, around 10 minutes past midnight in the area of Kalaincherra in Cachar.

The high court bench held that the authorities failed to serve a copy of the May 30 opinion or inform the woman’s family members about her arrest and expulsion, depriving Mumtaz Begum of the right to assail it.

“As the detenue has been expelled out of India without providing any information to the petitioner or any adult family member of the detention of the detenue, as an interim palliative measure, the court is inclined to direct the Government of Assam to pay an interim compensation of Rs 2,00,000 to the petitioner,” it said.

This compensation, to be paid within 60 days of receipt of the order, shall be in addition to the right of the petitioner to seek compensation before the civil court, the high court said.

The bench also said it was necessary to implead MEA in the case to locate the woman in Bangladesh, bring her back and “give her an opportunity to exhaust her remedy… to approach this Court to assail the impugned opinion by filing a writ petition, if so advised”.

It also noted “a case of malice in law” against the member of the Foreigners Tribunal at Nagaon’s Juria for “deliberately and wilfully” delaying issuance of the certified copy of its opinion, which was applied for on June 2 and delivered only on June 5, by which time Mumtaz Begum had already been sent to Bangladesh.

The high court directed the Home and Political Department of the Assam government to find out the exact date and time when the May 30 opinion was made ready in the Foreigners Tribunal.

It has listed the matter on September 24 for the next hearing.

As interim measures, it has directed the superintendent of police (Border) of every district to inform a declared foreign national about the foreigners tribunal opinion and provide a copy before taking him into custody, and inform adult family members before shifting him outside jurisdiction. PTI