The Calcutta High Court has quashed the deportation of a family from West Bengal to Bangladesh, sharply criticizing the authorities for rushing the process and ignoring constitutional safeguards.
In its ruling on September 26, a bench of Justices Reetobroto Kumar Mitra and Tapabrata Chakraborty directed the Union government to bring back 23-year-old Sunali Khatun, who is eight months pregnant, her husband Danish Sekh, and their young son within four weeks in coordination with the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
The order came after Sunali’s father, Bodu Sekh, filed a petition claiming that his daughter and her family, Indian citizens and permanent residents of Birbhum district, were picked up in Delhi during an “identity verification drive” on June 24 and deported to Bangladesh just two days later. “They were sent away without a fair hearing or proper verification. My daughter is an Indian citizen, yet she was treated like a foreigner,” Bodu told the court.
Government lawyers argued that Sunali and Danish admitted to being Bangladeshi nationals and could not produce valid documents, which justified their deportation under the Foreigners Act, 1946. They also pointed out that the family had earlier withdrawn a challenge before the Delhi High Court.
But the Calcutta High Court rejected this reasoning, stressing that a Ministry of Home Affairs memo issued on May 2 required a 30-day verification with the detainees’ home state before deportation. The judges noted that the Delhi FRRO had ignored this guideline, calling it a violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
The bench also flagged contradictions in the official records. Authorities had claimed Sunali entered India in 1998, yet her Aadhaar and PAN cards showed she was born in 2000. “The right to life and personal liberty cannot be compromised by procedural shortcuts,” the court observed, while also citing the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits sending individuals back to a place where their safety is at risk—even if they are not citizens.
The Centre’s plea for a stay was dismissed.
Rights groups welcomed the judgment but warned that this was not an isolated case. Activists say at least 30 Bengali-speaking people from West Bengal have been wrongly deported in recent years, with some only repatriated after long legal battles and document checks.
