NE states directed to respond to MHA report

NEW DELHI, July 17: The Supreme Court today directed all the Northeastern states besides West Bengal affected by the illegal infiltration from across the border to respond to the updated status report filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), even as the Centre again reaffirmed its contention that the IMDT Act is a discriminatory piece of legislation. The MHA counter affidavit filed today, however, declined to specify any time-frame for repealing the controversial Act. The Ministry's response came in connection with a writ petition filed by the former All Assam Students Union (AASU) President, Sarbananda Sonowal. The Apex Court today admitted Sonowal's petition challenging the IMDT Act. Resuming the hearing on a petition filed by the All India Lawyers Forum for Civil Liberty, a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, AS Anand, Justice RC Lahoti and Justice KG Balakrishnan asked the states facing the illegal immigration problem to respond to the MHA's revised status report on the issue. The court also wanted the orders passed by the Delhi High Court in a recent case involving the illegal Bangladeshi nationals caught by Delhi Police, to be placed in its court. Meanwhile, the writ petition filed by Sonowal was admitted and clubbed together with the Forums' PIL and he has been included as a petitioner in the case. He was represented by the former Attorney General, Ashok Desai. Meanwhile, the MHA in its revised Status Report said that it is of the view that the IMDT Act, 1983, in its application to the state of Assam alone is discriminatory. The proposal to repeal the Act is under active consideration of the Government. The Ministry further contended that one India Reserve Battalion for Tripura has also sanctioned. Proposal for creation of one IRB each for Manipur and Mizoram is also under active consideration. Meanwhile, the multi-purpose Photo Identity Cards scheme has run into fresh problems, with the MHA informing the Court that it has given extension to Tata Consultancy Services up to June, 2000 for submitting its report. An interim report of the detailed feasibility study on National Identity Card was submitted on April 26. However the report had several short comings and the TCS has been asked to address these while submitting their final report, the affidavit said. The MHA status report further claimed that it has sanctioned five floating Border Outposts (BOPs) for surveillance in the riverine sector of Indo-Bangladesh border. But the MHA has ruled out dereservation of the posts reserved for ex-serviceman only under the Prevention of Infiltration of Foreigners (PIF) scheme. The state had demanded reservation of the 1280 posts under the PIF scheme. The Government of Assam has informed us that the recruitment process for the remaining 442 vacant posts is in progress and the candidates are likely to be in position by December 31. The Ministry informed that the entire length of Indo-Bangladesh border and the additional projects of fencing of Indo-Bangla border is scheduled to be completed by March 2007. The Ministry further said that they proposed to set up designated courts to deal exclusively with the implementation of the provision of the Foreigners Act, 1946. Significantly, the state government's counsel, Vijay Hansaria today protested the delay in repealing the IMDT Act asserting that the centre has been repeating the same stand for the past one year, without setting any time-frame for scrapping the same.