The Calcutta High Court sets aside the Centre’s deportation order, directing the return of Birbhum families from Bangladesh within four weeks, protecting their rights and citizenship status.
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KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Friday set aside the Centre’s decision to deport two women and their families from West Bengal’s Birbhum district to Bangladesh, terming the move unlawful. The court directed the Union government to ensure that Sonali Bibi, Sweety Bibi, and their four family members, including three children, are brought back to India within a month.
The division bench, presided over by Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty, passed the order while hearing habeas corpus petitions filed by relatives of the deported individuals. The pleas claimed that the families, who had been working as daily wage earners in Delhi’s Rohini area for over two decades, were detained by Delhi Police on June 18, 2025, and forcibly deported to Bangladesh on June 27. The deportees were later arrested by the Bangladesh police.
One of the deported women, Sonali Bibi, was nine months pregnant at the time of deportation. Her family members expressed deep concern about the citizenship status of her newborn child if she gave birth in Bangladesh, adding urgency to the court’s directive.
The petitioners alleged that despite providing valid citizenship documents, including land ownership papers, voter IDs of parents and grandparents, and birth certificates of the children issued by state-run hospitals, the authorities proceeded with the deportation. According to the petitioners, the deportation was not only illegal but also carried out in violation of established legal procedures.
Argument
The Centre, in its affidavit, argued that the plea before the Calcutta High Court was not maintainable since similar petitions had earlier been filed before the Delhi High Court. The Additional Solicitor General also claimed that the Calcutta High Court lacked jurisdiction as the detention took place in Delhi. However, the bench rejected these arguments, holding that the deportation process violated due process and could not be justified.
The court also noted that the Ministry of Home Affairs had issued a memo on May 2, 2025, outlining deportation protocols for Bangladesh/Myanmar nationals. As per the memo, inquiries into suspected illegal migrants were to be conducted by state governments or union territories before deportation. The court found that this procedure had not been followed in the case of the Birbhum families.
Following the verdict, Trinamool Congress MP Samirul Islam strongly criticized the BJP, accusing it of pursuing an “anti-Bengali agenda.” Taking to X, he hailed the judgment as a victory for Bengal and accused the BJP of spreading lies to wrongfully brand poor Bengali families as Bangladeshi nationals.
“Today the Calcutta High Court tore apart the BJP’s sham…. This is not just my victory; it is Bengal’s victory — a rebuke to the BJP’s anti-Bengali, anti-poor policy. Under Mamata Banerjee’s leadership, we will continue fighting against such venomous, anti-people forces.”