The Centre on Wednesday told the Calcutta High Court that it cannot hear the habeas corpus petitions filed by family members of West Bengal migrants who were detained in other parts of the country and then allegedly pushed into Bangladesh, suspecting them to be illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.
During the hearing of habeas corpus petitions filed by families of six persons who were detained in Delhi and pushed to Bangladesh in June this year, Additional Solicitor General Ashok Chakraborty, representing the Centre, told the Division Bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobroto Kumar Mitre that the matter “cannot be heard” in the Calcutta High Court since it is pending in the Supreme Court.
The Bench, however, scheduled the next hearing on September 10, saying, “It is a serious issue and there should not be a conflicting decision”.
“Since there is a hearing in the Supreme Court later this month, we will hear the matter on September 10,” the Bench said.
Among the petitioners are the father of Sunali Bibi, who and her husband Danish Sheikh and their eight-year-old child, were pushed into Bangladesh by the BSF after they were detained from Delhi. Sunali Bibi is eight months pregnant. They are residents of Paikar in West Bengal’s Birbhum district.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the petitioners’ counsel Raghunath Chakraborty rejected the Centre’s argument and stressed the urgency of the issue. “They have been deported to Bangladesh. We don’t know what their condition is. We have withdrawn the petition in the Delhi High Court. There is a pregnant woman, there is a mother with two minors who have been deported, but no initiative has been taken to bring them back.”
To this, ASG Chakraborty, representing the Centre, said: “If they were deported in June, where are they staying now?”
The court then said that it was a “serious issue”.
Sunali and her family members have worked as ragpickers and domestic helpers in Delhi for the past two decades. After she was picked up, her family first approached a court in Delhi, but withdrew their plea later. With the help of the West Bengal Migrant Labour Welfare Board, they filed a habeas corpus plea with the Calcutta High Court instead.
Among the other petitioners in the case are the family of 32-year-old Sweety Bibi, who, with her two sons, aged 6 and 16 years, were detained in Delhi and pushed into Bangladesh at the same time.