By IANS,
Gandhinagar: The Gujarat High Court Friday dismissed a public interest litigation challenging “illegal detention and deportation” of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants by the police.
The bench comprising Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Justice Akil Kureshi said in a judgment that detention and deportation of such persons back to their nation is in the interest of the citizens of our country.
“Hence the petition challenging the process is not maintainable,” the court said while dismissing the petition without imposing any cost.
The court observed that as per the July 2003 report of the central government, there were around 15 to 18 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in the country.
The court had earlier sought an urgent need to lay down a clear procedure of law in cases relating to the detention and deportation of illegal immigrants.
The petitioner, Rajesh Mankad, challenged the Special Operations Group’s alleged illegal act of identifying, detaining and deporting foreign nationals of Bangladesh from the city without following “a due legal procedure”.
The chief justice directed the union government to place on record the circulars passed by the centre in this regard and asked it to come up with suggestions to assist the court to decide the steps that can be taken.
“It is not a dispute that illegal foreign nationals, including those from Bangladesh, are to be deported,” he said.