Even as the Centre and Assam Government have a big task at hand to handle the claims of those left out from the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Supreme Court wants to know the condition of detention centres in the State where illegal migrants who are unable to prove their citizenship have been kept.
As per a rough estimate, there are over 900 foreigners who are staying at the six detention centres in the State. A letter written by a NGO, the Collaborative Network for Research and Capacity Building to the court indicated that the living conditions of detenues in these centres is not up to the mark. The letter even raised doubts over some of the detainees who are “declared foreigners” being denied legal aid.
Taking up the letter, a bench of Justices Madan B lokur and Deepak Gupta on Thursday issued notice to the Centre and Assam Government and said, “Our concern is only limited to the living conditions of those who are kept in the detention centres in Assam.
It has been pointed out that notifications have been issued to the effect that some detention centres are actually located inside the premises of the prisons. Therefore, detention centres are not completely independent of prisons.
We would like to know from the State Government as well as from the Central Government the facilities and living conditions of the persons in the detention centres.”
The matter will be taken up next on August 24. The National legal Services Authority (NAlSA) Director SS Rathi who was present in court assured that all detainees were being provided legal aid. The Bench asked NAlSA to verify the same in view of the findings by the NGO, which has on its governing board two former judges of Gauhati High Court and a senior advocate practicing in the State among other eminent citizens.
The NGO even demanded setting up of a judicial committed headed by a retired judge of the High Court to monitor the working of these detention centres. The Bench, however, clarified, “Our enquiry is limited only to the aspect about living conditions of persons in the detention centres and legal aid, which is a vital part of Article 21 (Right to life) of the Constitution.”
At present, the six detention centres are located in jails at Dibrugarh, Kokrajhar, Silchar, Jorhat, Tezpur and Goalpara. According to sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs, the detainees are kept separate from the prisoners in the jails. Although, the infrastructure there is limited, plans are underway to set up a large detention centre with a housing capacity of 3,000 as the detainees stay as families in the centres. The State Government has acquired land for this purpose and work on this front is in progress.