Supreme Court notice to Center officials in Maharashtra over 'pushing' of woman to Bangladesh

Appearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, senior advocate S. Muralidhar and advocate Prasanna S. appeared for petitioner Sahin Fakir and challenged the laws to the extent that they allowed deportation of persons detained in India without any safeguards prescribed by law and the Constitution. | Photo credit: The Hindu

The Supreme Court on Thursday (September 17, 2026) issued a notice to the Center and authorities in Maharashtra on a man’s plea against the detention and deportation of his mother to Bangladesh.

The petition also questioned the legality of the Standard Operating Procedure dated May 2, 2025 titled “Procedure for Deportation of Illegal Bangladeshi Nationals/Rohingyas” and the Immigration and Foreigners Regulations 2025.

‘printed’

Mr Fakir alleged that his mother, Ms Sahida, was illegally detained and “pushed” from India to Bangladesh in July without any verification of her nationality. He sought to enforce the fundamental rights of his mother, who he said was an Indian citizen and a permanent resident of Gobindapur in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.

“The family’s connection with Gobindapur is further confirmed by a statement signed by 63 permanent residents of the village, including the petitioner and members of the Pushoutee family, addressed to the District Magistrate, North 24 Parganas, demanding her immediate return to India,” the petition said.

The petitioner linked his mother’s deportation to the recent Special Intensive Review (SIR) of the electoral roll exercise in West Bengal. He said that although his mother’s Indian identity and long association with West Bengal was supported by her identity and citizenship documents and historical electoral records, her name was deleted from the electoral roll during the SIR process. The deletion was challenged in court.

He said she had traveled to Mumbai around 20 years ago with her husband in search of livelihood and worked there as a domestic help.

‘No fair question’

According to the petition, Ms. Sahida was arrested on July 19 in Mumbai by persons who identified themselves as police personnel, forcibly detained and taken to a detention facility. Her identity documents and mobile phone were taken away and no fair inquiry was made regarding her nationality nor was she given an effective opportunity to prove her Indian citizenship, the petition said. She remained in custody for more than 100 hours without being brought before a judge or informed of the reasons for her detention, he added.

Five days later, she was handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF), taken to the international border and forcibly pushed into Bangladesh, the petition said, adding: “She was not provided with any judicial determination of her nationality, deportation proceedings, consular verification or any meaningful opportunity to challenge the claim of Bangladeshi nationality.”

Published – 17 Sep 2026 23:14 IST