In a significant order, the Gauhati High Court has asked the Assam government to pay Rs 2 lakh as interim compensation to the husband of Mumtaz Begum, a Bengali-speaking Muslim woman who was sent to Bangladesh after a foreigners tribunal declared her a foreign national.
The tribunal declared Begum a foreigner on May 30 after she appeared before it in compliance with an earlier High Court order directing reconsideration of her case. The High Court had found that the tribunal had failed to take into consideration all the evidence produced by Begum.
She was arrested after the tribunal’s order and subsequently moved to a detention centre. On June 14, Begum was handed over to the Border Security Force and deported to Bangladesh through an international border point in Sribhumi district.
Begum’s husband, Mujammel Hoque of Juria in Nagaon district, then approached the Gauhati High Court with a habeas corpus petition. The case was heard by a bench comprising Justices Kalyan Rai Surana and Susmita Phukan Khaund.
The court took serious note of the manner in which Begum was expelled from India. According to the order, neither Hoque nor any adult member of the family was informed before she was sent out of the country. The bench therefore considered it appropriate to direct the state to pay Rs 2 lakh to Hoque as an interim measure.
The Assam government has been given 60 days to pay the compensation. The court has also kept open the petitioner’s option to approach a civil court for additional relief.
The decision is particularly significant because it is the first such instance where a court has imposed a financial cost on the state over the expulsion of a person to Bangladesh in circumstances involving an alleged violation of deportation rules.
