Kolkata, Oct 29 (PTI) Relatives of six residents of West Bengal’s Birbhum district, who were deported to Bangladesh in June, moved a contempt petition before the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday against the Centre for failing to comply with its earlier order of bringing them back within a month, officials said.
The matter is scheduled to come up for hearing before the Bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Reetobroto Kumar Mitra on November 6, court documents stated.
On September 26, the same bench of the high court, responding to a Habeas Corpus petition moved by the applicants, had set aside the Centre’s decision to deport six members of the two families, including three children, after terming them as “illegal immigrants”.
Among the deportees, Sonali is over nine months pregnant and is lodged, along with others, in a Bangladesh prison after the authorities in that country found them illegal residents following their push back.
On September 30, a Bangladesh court also found those people to be Indians and asked the Indian High Commission in Dhaka to arrange their repatriation.
Meanwhile, on October 22, the Ministry of Home Affairs had moved the Supreme Court, challenging the Calcutta High Court order, and argued that the latter lacked jurisdiction because the original detention and deportation occurred in Delhi.
The matter is currently under the apex court’s consideration, which is looking into the MHA’s appeal and the broader legality of the ministry’s deportation process. In its order, the division bench of the high court had observed that “the proceeding for deportation was conducted in hot haste” by the authorities, and in violation of the provisions of the memo issued by the MHA based on which the FRRO (Foreigner Regional Registration Office), Delhi, has been repatriating illegal migrants of Bangladesh. PTI SMY NN
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