New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the central and the Assam governments on the question of fencing the border with Bangladesh and appointed a commissioner to visit the area and give a report on the ground situation.
Taking a serious view of the central government “dragging its feet” on the border fencing, a bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman said: “We are therefore of the view that the court should appoint a commissioner who would visit the border area and report to the court what it finds on the ground.”
Appointing A. Hazarika as the court commissioner, the court directed the government to provide a fund of Rs.5 lakh to enable his work and asked him to submit an interim report in three weeks time and the final report by June 30, 2015.
The centralgovernment in the hearing of the matter March 31, 2015 had said that it would inform the court the “steps that have been taken by it with regard to border fencing, construction of border roads, night patrolling, flood-lights, scheme for deportation in consultation with the Bangladesh etc. in terms of the order of the court dated December 17, 2014.”
The apex court by its December 17 judgment had asked the Central government to complete the fencing of the India-Bangladesh border where the fencing is yet to be completed to check illegal immigration.
The court in its judgment had also directed the setting up of Foreigners Tribunals and streamlining the existing mechanism of deportation of declared illegal migrants in consultation with the Bangladesh government.
Noting that the Gauhati High court which was entrusted with the task of appointing the chairman and the members of the Foreigners Tribunals have not able to perform its task, the court directed the high court to complete the task within 45 days.
“We direct the high court to take prompt action in this regard,” the court said as it also directed the Assam government to make available the infrastructure so that tribunals become operations by August 10.
Meanwhile, the apex court issued notice to the central, Assam and other state governments on an application contending that the sections 3 and 6A of the Citizenship Act were in conflict as far as children born in India to illegal Bangladesh migrants were concerned.
In the application that was converted into a writ petition under constitution’s Article 32, the petitioners had sought directions to the central and Assam governments on a matter relating to the “citizenship status of children born to illegal migrants i.e. migrants from Bangladesh into Assam after March 25, 1971”.
The application was filed by advocate Somiran Sharma on behalf of the some academicians who had lost their families during Assam agitation.
March 25, 1971 is the cut of date after which all the illegal migrants would be deported back to Bangladesh.