MHA goofed up and deported Indian citizens to Bangladesh

Sunali Khatun’s father, a resident of Birbhum district of West Bengal, had filed a habeas corpus petition before the Calcutta High Court. An Indian citizen by birth, his family had lived for generations in the same village, he told the court. However, his pregnant daughter, her husband and their eight-year-old son were detained by Delhi Police in June, 2025 and accused them of being Bangladeshis.

Within three days, he claimed, they were forced to enter Bangladesh by the BSF. In Bangladesh they were arrested as intruders and sent to jail.

Calcutta High Court, after examining the matter and hearing the counsel of the union government, directed the union government to arrange for their repatriation from Bangladesh within four weeks. The court questioned the procedure followed by the police to determine citizenship and pointed out that no inquiry had been conducted.

When Sunali Khatun’s biological father happens to be an Indian citizen and had his name registered as a voter in the electoral rolls of 2002, the benchmark year for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, there was enough reason to suspect that Delhi Police had made a mistake, the court held.

A prayer for repatriation was filed by Sunali Khatun also in a court in Bangladesh. She prayed to be sent back to India to her family. While the court in Bangladesh accepted the prayer, released the five Indians on bail and directed Bangladesh government to coordinate with the Indian High Commission in Dhaka and make arrangements for their return, the Government of India was reluctant to accept that the woman was an Indian citizen.

The Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, told the Supreme Court this week that the woman and her husband had failed to produce any document as proof of their identity or citizenship. He also claimed that the Khatun and her companions had confessed to Delhi Police that they were Bangladeshi citizens.

The same plea was made before the Calcutta High Court by the union government. The high co aurt, however, ruled that confession to the police could be extracted by coercion and hence an inquiry was essential to determine citizenship.

The Supreme Court bench headed by CJI Surya Kant observed that if Sunali’s biological father happens to be an Indian citizen and has not been deported yet, what could be the basis for declaring his daughter a Bangladeshi?

Under Indian law, since her father is Indian, Sunali is automatically an Indian citizen, and therefore her son is also an Indian citizen. Neither the court nor the union government was, however, willing to state categorically that the government had goofed up.

The court wanted the pregnant Sunali Khatun and her son to be brought back to India as an ‘interim measure’ while the government agreed to bring them back on ‘humanitarian ground’. Neither the court nor the government would commit on the woman’s husband and the other two Indians.

The union government told the Supreme Court that it was willing to bring the lady back to New Delhi. The court however rejected this and directed that she be sent directly to her ancestral home in Birbhum.  The State government was directed to take care of Sunali's treatment.

Birbhum district administration and the Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) have been instructed to ensure proper medical care for Sunali, who is in the advanced stage of pregnancy. 

The high court also found the procedure adopted for deportation to be hasty and improper. The question of citizenship ought to be considered based on documents, facts and evidence by an appropriate court, it held.

During an 'identity verification drive', the woman, her husband and son were picked up, detained and illegally deported to Bangladesh on 26.06.2025, the petitioner claimed before the court. It was submitted that the FRRO, Delhi, had been repatriating alleged ‘illegal migrants’ from Bangladesh as per instruction dated 02.05.2025 issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

However, no enquiry was conducted in terms of the memo published by the Union government, and the detainees were deported within a period of two days.