Calcutta High Court: No Deportation by Branding Someone ‘Bangladeshi’ on Mere Suspicion

Individuals cannot be deported from India based merely on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals, the Calcutta High Court observed on Thursday (October 8). Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya made the observation during a hearing challenging the detention and proposed deportation of a man from Murshidabad, staying the deportation order for the time being.

The petitioner, the detainee’s wife, challenged her husband’s detention and the deportation notice issued by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO). Her counsel submitted that he had been detained since August 8 based solely on statements from a few neighbors, while the wife was not detained.
Justice Bhattacharyya emphasized that individuals must be given adequate opportunity to prove their citizenship, noting that the authorities appeared to have denied the petitioner due process. He questioned the justification for holding the individual for nearly two months without following a verifiable process for citizenship verification.

Counsel Rabiul Islam reiterated that neighbor statements formed the sole basis of the detention. The court remarked that nationality cannot be conclusively determined on such grounds and reiterated that detention without proper legal procedure is impermissible.

The court further questioned the feasibility of deporting everyone who crossed the border since the 1970s before referring the matter to the Chief Justice of the High Court for assignment to an appropriate bench.
Additional Advocate General Rajdeep Majumder, representing the state, argued that the detainee might have obtained identity documents, including Voter, Aadhaar, and PAN cards, using forged papers. However, the court maintained that documents must be properly verified before making a deportation decision, and hearsay statements alone cannot substantiate claims of illegal entry.

Since mid-2025, several BJP-ruled states have faced allegations of profiling Bengali-speaking Muslim laborers as Bangladeshi nationals and deporting them. Complainants allege that many were sent back with the assistance of the Border Security Force (BSF) without judicial or tribunal orders.

In West Bengal, the BJP announced a ‘detain, strike off, and deport’ policy shortly after assuming power, aiming to hold suspected foreign nationals in detention centers prior to swift deportation. In a separate incident in July, four Indians were repatriated via the Mahadipur land port in Malda following a court order after spending nearly a year in Bangladesh.

Political tensions have also heightened over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of India’s electoral rolls. According to the Election Commission, approximately 133.9 million voters nationwide were categorized as absent, permanently shifted, deceased, or duplicate. Opposition parties and civil society groups allege that genuine voters have been disenfranchised, risking their access to state benefits. The Election Commission maintained that the revision aims to ensure roll accuracy by removing ineligible and duplicate entries.

Protests against the SIR process have erupted across India, with demonstrators demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in voter list revisions.

Sources: The Telegraph India, The Indian Express