India court orders 2 lakh rupees compensation for Bengali woman illegally pushed into Bangladesh

The Gauhati High Court has ordered the Assam government to pay 200,000 rupees in interim compensation after authorities pushed a Bengali-origin Muslim woman into Bangladesh without allowing her to exhaust her legal remedies, Indian news outlet Scroll.in reported on Monday. 

In a significant intervention, the court also brought India's Ministry of External Affairs into the case and said it would direct the ministry to make efforts to locate Mumtaz Begum in Bangladesh and bring her back to India, allowing her to challenge the ruling that declared her a foreigner. 

According to court records, Begum was handed over to India's Border Security Force and pushed across the Bangladesh border during the night of June 13-14.

Her husband did not know where she had been taken and learnt that she had been expelled only after filing a habeas corpus petition, Scroll.in reported. 

The case centres on Assam's controversial Foreigners Tribunal system, which determines whether people suspected of being foreigners can establish Indian citizenship.

Begum had been marked a "D", or doubtful, voter in 1997.

A tribunal declared her a foreigner in 2017, but the Gauhati High Court ordered a retrial. She was again declared a foreigner, and in 2019 the High Court found that the tribunal had failed to consider all the evidence she submitted and ordered another hearing. 

Begum appeared before the Nagaon Foreigners Tribunal on May 30 this year following the High Court's instructions.

Instead of being given an opportunity to challenge the fresh ruling against her, however, she was arrested shortly afterward and eventually taken to the Matia detention centre before being expelled to Bangladesh.

The High Court said the state machinery had acted "in tandem" to prevent Begum from exercising her right to challenge the tribunal's decision. It found an apparent element of "malice in law" in the tribunal's handling of the case. 

The court also ordered an inquiry into when the May 30 tribunal decision was prepared, saying the tribunal member's computer could be seized for forensic examination if necessary.

Scroll.in described the compensation order as the first time an Indian court has imposed a financial cost on the state for pushing a person into Bangladesh in violation of deportation procedures. 

The court further ordered Assam police to ensure that people declared foreigners are informed of tribunal rulings before being detained and that adult family members are notified before detainees are moved out of a district. 

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