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After granting a stay order on the deportation of an Assam-based woman on September 23, 2022, the Supreme Court on September 26, 2022 granted the same protection to two dozen other petitioners with similar cases. This comes after the Supreme Court ordered that no action be taken to deport a woman whose name was excluded from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) and who was designated a foreigner. The Supreme Court has further sought comments from the Centre and the Assam government in response to the woman’s petition. The Supreme Court had, in the said case, taken into account that every member of her family had been granted Indian citizenship, while the Courts have deemed that she entered India illegally.
After the said order, the Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices Hima Kohli and D Y Chandrachud has been flooded with similar cases. The Supreme Court bench issued a similar decision extending protection to all petitioners on Monday after hearing over two dozen such cases. This means no coercive action would be taken against them and they would not be deported. In virtually every case, the petitioners stated that all of their family members and in-laws were naturalized citizens of India with their names included in the NRC; nonetheless, despite being born here, they were not included.
As reported by the Times of India, Mamela Khatun claimed in one of the petitions, submitted by counsel Satya Mitra on her behalf, that her grandfather, father, mother, sister, and brother are Indian citizens and that there has never been any question about their citizenship, and that she was wrongly labeled as a foreigner despite having produced all the necessary documentation to support her claim. The state government was given notice by the court that it was required to respond to all petitions. The court noted the overwhelming number of cases and humorously informed lawyer Shuvodeep that he had a lot of work ahead of him.
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