The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Assam government to submit details of the total number of detention centres in the state and the inmates lodged there.

The Supreme Court’s order to the Assam government came during a hearing of a petition filed by human rights activist Harsh Mander.

The Supreme Court has also asked the state to provide the period for which the inmates have been lodged in the detention centres.

The Court also directed the government to provide details on “whether all the inmates lodged in such detention centres have been declared as foreigners or not and there are any inmates whose applications before the foreign tribunal are pending”.

The Assam government has also been directed to give details of how many inmates have been deported and what has been the state’s success rate.

The state has been given three weeks’ time to file an affidavit with the details.

The court said that the affidavit should contain information as to how many inmates have been declared as foreigners by the tribunals in the last decade.

“Year-wise break up needs to be furnished by the Centre,” the court said.

Hearing the case, the court observed “If the inmates have not been accepted by a foreign country despite they being declared foreign then they cannot remain under detention.”

In his PIL, Mander has questioned the keeping of people in Assam’s detention centres for an indefinite period on suspicion of being foreigners.

In his petition, Mander has claimed that keeping people in detention for years was illegal and also a violation of human rights.

First Published: Jan 28, 2019 14:31 IST