SC quashes UPA govt order on Bangladeshi migrants

New Delhi, Dec 5 (UNI) The Supreme Court today came down heavily on the Manmohan Singh government and imposed a cost of Rs. 25000 on it while quashing the 2006 order and the Foreigners (Tribunal) Amendment Order 2006 putting the onus of proving that the accused is a foreign national on the complainant or the state in order to protect illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Asom as unconstitutional.

A bench comprising Justices S B Sinha and P K Balasubramanyan directed the union government to implement its directions in IMDT case issued on July 12,2005 for setting up sufficient number of tribunals under the 1964 Order to effectively deal with the cases of foreigners who have illegally come from Bangladesh or are residing in Assam, within a period of four months from this date.

The Apex court in its 50-page judgment noted with anguish,"Thus by way of a subordinate legislation the directions issued by this court in earlier binding decision to get all pending cases relating to alleged immigrants decided by the Tribunal under the 1964 Order is sought to be nullified.It is done in spite of the reasoning in Sonowal 1 leading to the directions issued therein. It must be noted that the Parent Act stands unamended.

Instead of obeying the mandamus issued by this court essentially in the interests of national security and to preserve the demographic balance of a part of India, that is Bharat, and implementing the 1964 Order in Asom in letter and spirit , the authorities that be have chosen to make the 1964 Order itself inapplicable in Asom." A three- judge bench headed by the then chief justice of India R.C. Lahoti had ruled that allowing the illegal migrants to stay in India indefinitely will amount to external aggression.

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