On March 3, 2025, the Gauhati High Court’s issued stayed the deportation of Ajabha Khatun, currently lodged in the Matia detention camp of Assam after she was arrested in September 2024. Acting on a 2019 judgement of the Foreigner Tribunal that had questionably declared her a foreigner, she was among the 53 persons listed by the Union of India for ‘deportation’. In the ongoing Rajubala case in the Supreme Court, Ajabha Khatun had, filed an Intervention Application (IA) and pointed out the pending challenge to her citizenship status on February 25.
Yesterday, a division bench of the Gauhati HC, comprising Justices Kalyan Rai Surana and Malasri Nandi stayed her deporation taking note of the order passed by the SC on her IA in the Rajubala case. The court has also requisitioned records from the Foreigners Tribunal to examine her prayer for bail given the procedural validity of the FT declaration. In the writ petition before the HC filed last November, Ajabha Khatun’s has challenged her declaration as a foreigner by the Foreigner’s Tribunal No. 1st, Barpeta. Khatun’s case is that the tribunal had issued an ex parte order on February 8, 2019, declaring her a post-1971 foreigner, effectively stripping her of Indian citizenship. The HC has issued notice returnable on April 4, 2025 and directed the Union of India, the State of Assam, the NRC authority, and the Election Commission to respond.
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Recognising the seriousness of her situation, the High Court granted temporary relief by staying her deportation, ordering that she shall not be removed from the country without an order of the high court. Her prayer for bail will be heard once the tribunal records are received.
The present order of the Ajabha Khatun’s case came after Supreme Court, through the ongoing matter of Raju Bala Das v. Union of India, where the apex court is examining the overcrowded conditions of detention camps in Assam. As part of the proceedings the issue of the deportation of those individuals declared foreigners in Assam arose. The Union government had made the (unsubstantiated) claim that 63 persons from the Matia Relief camp were in line for deportation. Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) has been closely monitoring the case and when it’s team found that Ajabha Khatun, whose case was still pending in the Gauhati HC also figured as number “18” on this list of 63, CJP assisted her in filing the IA before the apex court. In the order on Ajabha’s case passed by the SC, the court stated that the petitioner should seek interim relief from the High Court in her case. On February 25, 2025, it was on the basis of this order that the deportation was stayed yesterday.
Details of the Gauhati High Court proceedings and immediate relief
Thereafter, on March 3, 2025, the Gauhati High Court took cognisance of her pending writ petition challenging the tribunal’s decision that had declared her foreigner. A division bench comprising Justices Kalyan Rai Surana and Malasri Nandi issued a notice returnable on April 4, 2025, directing the Union of India, the State of Assam, the NRC authority, and the Election Commission to respond. The court also requisitioned relevant records from the Foreigners Tribunal to further decide the case.
The court has also ordered the requisition of relevant records from the Foreigners Tribunal that have been challenged by Ajabha Khatun with legal aid assistance from CJP. Given that the writ petition has challenged the declaration of Ajabha Khatun as not Indian”, and prayed for her release on bail, the procedural or substantive lapses in the FT order will now be considered by the High Court. Counsel Mrinmoy Dutta appeared for the petitioner.
The petitioner is currently detained at Matia Transit Camp in Goalpara. A crucial relief granted to the petitioner is the court’s order that she shall not be deported from the country without the court’s explicit permission, while her prayer for bail and release from the relief camp is pending hearing. Yesterday’s order ensures that she is not removed from India before the matter is fully adjudicated.
The order may be read here.
Supreme Court proceedings in the Raju Bala Das Case
Ajabha Khatun’s case is part of a broader legal challenge against arbitrary detentions of individuals declared foreigners by Foreigners Tribunals in Assam. On February 25, 2025, Khatun, with assistance from Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), sought impleadment as a party petitioner in the Supreme Court case of Raju Bala Das v. Union of India.
During this hearing, senior advocate Aparna Bhat argued that since Khatun’s challenge to the tribunal’s order was still pending before the High Court, any deportation order against her would be legally untenable. Deportation without exhausting legal remedies would constitute a grave miscarriage of justice, particularly given the procedural and evidentiary flaws in the tribunal’s decision.
The Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices Abhay Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, acknowledged that her case was still under judicial consideration at the High Court level. While the Supreme Court declined to grant interim relief, it instructed her counsel to seek appropriate orders from the High Court.
In the ongoing Raju Bala Das case, the Assam government had been directed to submit a comprehensive list of individuals facing deportation by March 17, 2025. During previous hearings, the state argued that 63 detainees, including Khatun, were foreigners and should be deported. However, when questioned by the Supreme Court on February 4, 2025 about their country of origin, the Assam government failed to provide concrete proof which is why they have been asked to file further affidavits.
Denial of fundamental rights and legal violations
Ajabha Khatun’s case demonstrates the systematic denial of fundamental rights in Assam’s Foreigners Tribunal system. Her ordeal began in 1997, when the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) for the Barpeta Assembly Constituency raised doubts about her citizenship and referred her case to the Superintendent of Police (SP), Barpeta, under the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983, later subsumed under the Foreigners Act, 1946.
The tribunal ultimately declared her a foreigner in 2019, but she was only arrested in September 2024. CJP subsequently assisted her in filing an appeal before the Gauhati High Court. Her case resurfaced when the state submitted an affidavit in the Raju Bala Das case, listing her as one of the 63 detainees marked for deportation.
Her citizenship has been in question for over two decades, during which her fundamental rights have been severely curtailed:
- Since 1997, she has been denied the right to vote, as her name was arbitrarily struck from electoral rolls without justification.
- The Foreigners Tribunal disregarded evidence such as voter rolls featuring her father, husband, and herself.
- The burden of proof was misapplied, and her father’s testimony confirming her identity was ignored.
Beyond procedural violations, her indefinite detention at Matia Transit Camp amounts to a grave infringement of her right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. She remains confined without a criminal charge, in deplorable conditions that the Supreme Court has previously criticised. Her right to equality under Article 14 is also at stake, as citizenship determination processes in Assam disproportionately target the state’s most marginalised sections.
Her detailed story may be read here.
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