The Supreme Court of India on August 14, declined to grant an interim stay on the detention and deportation of Muslim Bengali migrant workers, warning that unchecked illegal immigration could have serious consequences.
The matter came up before a bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, which is hearing a petition filed by the West Bengal Migrant Workers Welfare Board challenging a May 2025 Home Ministry directive authorising states to detain suspected illegal immigrants.
Justice Surya Kant, in a pointed observation, said: “We cannot overlook ground realities. Suppose someone is an infiltrator and enters illegally, how do we deal with that situation? If you don’t detain, the writing on the wall is that they will disappear.”
The court noted that while states have the right to verify the bona fides of migrant workers with their state of origin, the challenge lies in the “interregnum” the period between detention and verification. Passing an interim order to halt detentions, the court said, could hinder the deportation of genuine illegal immigrants under the law.
Justice Kant stressed the importance of a verification framework: “Yes, some mechanism needs to be there to identify workers, maybe some card from the place of origin that authorities in other states can accept as proof of bona fide.”
The bench suggested that a formal identification system could reduce wrongful detentions while ensuring that those crossing borders illegally are not allowed to vanish without trace.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Prashant Bhushan alleged that Bengali-speaking individuals are being detained in states such as Delhi merely because of their language or Bengali-language documents.
“They are being detained while an inquiry is held about their bona fide, and in some cases, they are even tortured. I have no problem with inquiries, but there should not be any detention,” Bhushan told the court.
The petition urges the Supreme Court to withdraw the MHA circular and restrain states from detaining Bengali migrant workers without proper verification.
The court has sought responses from the Union Government and nine states, Odisha, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, and West Bengal, before the next hearing on August 25.
The detentions have triggered political backlash in West Bengal, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accusing the BJP-led Centre of targeting Bengalis by branding them as Bangladeshis. The Kolkata Police has even launched a helpline for migrant workers from the state facing harassment or identity checks elsewhere.
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