SC summons Assam state's chief secretary to appear before it

The Supreme Court is likely to seek answers from Assam Chief Secretary on Tuesday on the issue of tracing several thousand declared foreign nationals for deporting them to the country of their origin. The apex court on April 1 had expressed unhappiness over declared foreign nationals absconding and amalgamating with the local population in Assam and had summoned the state's chief secretary to appear before it on Monday.

Chief Secretary Alok Kumar was present on Monday before a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna. It noted the appearance of the Chief Secretary and posted the matter for further hearing on Tuesday.

"List tomorrow. Chief Secretary of the State of Assam is personally present today. He will be present personally tomorrow," the bench said in the order. Accusing Assam government of "playing with the court", the apex court on April 1 had also termed the reply filed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as an "exercise in futility" and sought to know as to how the persons, declared foreigners by the tribunal, have amalgamated with the local population.

The top court was hearing a PIL filed by activist Harsh Mander, through advocate Prashant Bhushan, on the plight of foreigners in detention centres. The plea alleged that they are kept in detention indefinitely just because they are not Indians and are treated as "illegal aliens". The bench had referred to the figure provided by the government that about 91,609 people have been declared as illegal foreigners by tribunals and out of them, 72,486 were absconding and around 900 persons are in kept in detention centres presently.

During the last hearing, the Chief Secretary had not appeared before the apex court which had threatened to issue contempt notice to him.

(With inputs from agencies.)