Gauhati HC grants visitation rights after state confirms Doyjan Bibi is in Kokrajhar Holding Centre After weeks of silence, State verbally confirms she is at Kokrajhar Holding Centre; Court allows vakalatnama signing and lists matter for further hearing on June 25
17, Jun 2025 | CJP Team
What We Know So Far: June 17, 2025
Nearly three weeks after her sudden and unannounced detention, on June 16, the Gauhati High Court granted visitation rights and legal access to Doyjan Bibi, the woman at the centre of the writ petition filed by her husband, Abdul Rejjak, under Article 226 of the Indian Constitution.
The petition alleged that Doyjan Bibi had been picked up from her home in Gauripur, Dhubri district, on the night of May 24, 2025, without any warrant, arrest memo, or subsequent disclosure of her whereabouts. Since her detention, the family had received no formal communication regarding where she was being held — prompting the filing of a petition to trace her location and challenge the legality of her custody.
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During the hearing, the counsel for the Foreigner’s Tribunal (FT) submitted that he had received verbal instructions over phone indicating that Doyjan Bibi is currently lodged at the Kokrajhar Holding Centre.
The bench comprising Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Malasri Nandi recorded the statement and passed an order:
- Allowing the petitioner, Abdul Rejjak, along with one family member, to visit Doyjan Bibi at the holding centre;
- Permitting the signature of the detained person on the vakalatnama, to facilitate proper legal representation in the ongoing petition;
- Listing the matter again on June 25, 2025, for further hearing.
Prior hearing (June 9): Revival of FT order cited, no location disclosed
At the earlier hearing on June 9, the FT counsel had informed the Court that Doyjan Bibi had been declared a foreigner by FT No. 4, Dhubri in 2017, in an ex-parte proceeding. That order had been set aside by a coordinate bench of the Gauhati High Court in 2021, on the condition that the detainee reappear before the FT. It was submitted that since she failed to appear, the original FT opinion had been revived, and her COVID-era bail cancelled.
However, during that hearing, the State had been unable to provide any official information about where Doyjan Bibi was being held, or under what authority she had been taken into custody. The Court had deferred substantive consideration of relief but sought information regarding her custody status.
Details of the hearing may be read here.
June 16 order: Limited relief, awaiting full disclosure
On June 16, the State could not provide any written record of detention or produce Doyjan Bibi in court. The only submission made was verbal — a telephonic update from the FT counsel — that she is presently in Kokrajhar Holding Centre.
The Court, while refraining from adjudicating on the legality of the detention at this stage, treated the FT counsel’s statement as sufficient basis to allow limited visitation and legal access.
The matter is now listed for further hearing on June 25.
Doyjan Bibi’s detention falls within a pattern of cases involving individuals:
- Declared foreigners by ex parte FT orders;
- Later released on bail following more than two years in detention, under Supreme Court directions during COVID-19;
- And subsequently re-arrested — allegedly without fresh legal orders, warrant, or procedural safeguards — in May 2025, often at night and without notice to family.
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