The Central government has expressed its inability before the Supreme Court to provide accurate data over the number of illegal immigrants currently residing in India on the grounds that such migrations happened in a secretive manner.
Filing an affidavit in the Apex Court, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday submitted that 14,346 foreign nationals were deported from the country between 2017 and 2022, and 17,861 migrants who had entered Assam between January 1966 and March 1971 were given Indian citizenship.
As per the affidavit, foreign nationals entered into the country without valid travel documents in a clandestine and surreptitious manner.
Their detection, detention and deportation was a complex ongoing process, it said, adding that it was not possible to collect accurate data of such illegal migrants staying in various parts of the country.
The Union Home Secretary further said in the affidavit that 32,381 persons were declared foreigners by orders of Foreigners Tribunals between the same period. In the last five years, a sum of Rs 122 crore was released by the Central government towards the functioning of such tribunals, he added.
On December 7, the Supreme Court directed the Central government to file an affidavit regarding the steps taken at an administrative level to deal with illegal immigration into the North Eastern states, particularly Assam.
The Constitution Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Surya Kant, Justice MM Sundresh, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra also sought details from the Union of India with regard to the extent of border fencing and the estimated timelines to complete border fencing.
The Centre was further directed to furnish data on the inflow of illegal migrants to Assam and North-Eastern states after March 25, 1971.
The Apex Court issued the direction on a batch of petitions challenging Section 6A of the Citizenship Act 1955, which was inserted to give effect to the Assam Accord of 1985. The Bench further sought details from the Union of India on the number of persons who were granted citizenship under Section 6A with reference to the time period of persons coming to Assam between January 1, 1966 to March 25, 1971.
It also asked about the number of persons detected to be foreigners under the Foreigners Tribunals Order 1964 with reference to January 1, 1966 to March 25, 1971.
The Centre was directed to apprise the Court about the total number of foreigner tribunals set by the Union government, total number of cases disposed of, number of cases pending as of date, the average time taken for disposal of cases, and the number of cases pending before Gauhati High Court, with respect of persons entering the North Eastern States after March 25, 1971.
Both the Centre and the State of Assam were directed to file the affidavit by December 11. Appearing for the Central government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the affidavit would be submitted in a day or two.
(Case title: In Re: Section 6A Citizenship Act 1955)