The Supreme Court on Friday reprimanded the Assam government over the lack of basic facilities such as a proper sanitation system, toilets, and medical facilities in state detention centres.
The Bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih highlighted the ‘sorry state of affairs’ in the detention centres, stating that there was no adequate water supply, proper sanitation system, toilets, and medical facilities.
The Court made this observation after perusing a report from the Secretary of Assam Legal Services Authority regarding the detention centre in Matial, Assam.
The Bench recorded in its order that it found the facilities very poor in the sense that there was no adequate water supply, no proper sanitation systems, and no proper toilets. The report did not even speak about the facility of food and medical health.
The Bench directed the Secretary of Assam SLSA to visit the centre one more time to find out not only the facilities mentioned in the report, but also to ascertain the quality and quantity of food served, along with the cleanliness of the kitchen.
Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves submitted that it was a very big deportation centre with 3000 people in it.
The Apex Court had earlier directed the Union Government to take immediate steps to deport 17 declared foreigners detained in transit camps of Assam.
The top court of the country today ordered the Union of India to file a response on the issue of deportation within three weeks.
The Bench passed the order after taking note of the fact that no pending cases were registered against these foreigners. Besides, four of the foreigners were detained for a period of two years.
The Court had earlier asked the Assam SLSA to visit the detention centre to find out the nature of facilities made available for the declared foreigners and file a report.
The Bench today asked the Union to apprise the Court about the steps for deportation.
Gonsalves submitted that some of the individuals proposed to be deported have their cases pending before the High Court. He said it needed to be checked whether any case was pending somewhere down the line against these people.
Gonsalves further submitted that no legal aid was currently being provided to the persons from the Foreigners’ tribunal by the High Court,