The Supreme Court Tuesday directed the Assam government to apprise it of possible "ways and means" that can be adopted for releasing illegal foreigners who have been kept in the state's detention centres for a very long period.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also took note of the state's submissions that the observations during the hearing of this case may have some impact in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Assam and sought the hearing of the plea after April 23.

Lok Sabha elections in Assam would be held on April 23.

Shifting the PIL for hearing on April 25, the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, directed the Assam chief secretary to conduct a meeting of all stakeholders in the case and come out with an affidavit on or before April 23 giving details on releasing over 900 illegal foreigners in several detention centres there.