Assam govt to invoke a forgotten law to identify and expel illegal migrants

The Assam government is working on reviving the use of a 75-year-old previously overlooked law in a bid to push back illegal immigrants from the state. As per the law, the state will be able to remove illegal migrants without any form of judicial intervention and immediately after their identification.

On Saturday, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma noted that a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court, while hearing a case on Section 6A of the Citizenship Act (October 2024), had maintained that there is no legal requirement for the Assam government to always approach the judiciary in regards to illegal immigrants, The Times of India reported.

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"There is an old law called the Immigrants Expulsion Order (1950), and during a hearing on Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court said this Act is still valid. Under its provisions, even a district commissioner can issue an order for immediate pushback of illegal immigrants," the Assam CM said on Saturday.

"For whatever reason, our lawyers had not informed us about this, and we weren't aware of it either," Sarma added. He revealed that in the past few days, the entire matter has come to light, and the state government will now discuss it seriously.

The process of identifying foreigners will be sped up: Assam CM

The Assam CM noted that the process of identifying illegal immigrants and pushing them back from the state will be sped up now that the government is aware of the law. "The process of identifying foreigners, which had paused due to NRC-related matters, will now be sped up a bit," he said.

"This time, if someone is identified as a foreigner, we don't send them to a tribunal. We will straightaway push them back. Preparations for this have been ongoing over the last few days," he added. Sarma also maintained that those who have moved courts will not be pushed back for now.

In his statement, Sarma was referring to the five-member Constitution Bench headed by then Chief Justice DY Chandrachud. On October 17, 2024, the bench upheld the validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act in a 4:1 majority, with Justice JB Pardiwala giving the sole dissenting opinion.

In their joint order, Justices Surya Kant, MM Sundresh and Manoj Misra said that the provisions of the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, "shall be effectively employed for identification of illegal immigrants."

About the 1950 law

The Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950 (IEAA) empowers the central government to order the expulsion of any person or class of persons who came into Assam from outside India, either before or after the commencement of the Act. The act can be implemented to deal with someone who stays in Assam and is detrimental to the interests of the general public of India or any Scheduled Tribe in Assam.

The constitutional bench also noted that the IEAA granted "the Central Government the power to direct the removal of immigrants who are detrimental to the interests of India."

"If there is any other piece of legislation, such as the IEAA, under which the status of an immigrant can be determined, we see no reason why such statutory detection shall not also be given effect to, for deportation. We thus hold that the provisions of IEAA shall also be read into Section 6A and be applied along with the Foreigners Act, 1946, for detection and deportation of foreigners," the judges stated in their order.

It is pertinent to note that the law was enacted even before the immigrants from West and East Pakistan were considered foreigners under the Foreigners Act. According to the Statement of Objects and Reasons, the Act was enacted to deal with the large-scale immigration of migrants from East Bengal to Assam.