Bangla migrants issue: SC notice to Centre, Asom

New Delhi, Apr 3: The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Centre and the state of Asom on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), challenging the Home Ministry's order of transferring the onus of proving the nationality of illegal Bangladeshi migrants to the state for deporting such illegal migrants.

A bench comprising Justice S B Sinha and Justice P K Balasubramanyan fixed the application for interim stay against the impugned order for April 10. Former Union Minister Ravi Shanker Prasad and also a senior counsel appeared for the petititioner, Sarbananda Sonowal and pressed for an interim stay against the order. He pleaded that the order was illegal and unconstitutional and it had made the detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants virtually imossible.

There are about 20 lakh illegal Bangladeshi migrants in the bordering state of Asom, he added.

The Supreme Court had earlier quashed the Act passed by the Government protecting the illegal Bangladeshi migrants.

The impugned order was passed by the Union Home Ministry in July last year.

UNI