According to Mr. Justice Banerjee, the order of the Director General of Police, Maharastra, branding the concerned Bengalees as Bangladesh nationals was illegal because they were not provided the opportunity to prove their Indian citizenship. Rather there was an attempt on behalf of the Maharastra government and its police to push them back to Bangladesh.

Mr. Justice Banerjee has also rejected the order of the Director General of Police, Maharastra. The directive of Justice Banerjee of the Calcutta High Court upholds the stand taken by the West Bengal government on the issue. The Left Front Government of West Bengal had earlier stated that the Maharastra government was acting illegally in driving out the Bengalees as illegal. In fact, in the name of deporting the Bangladeshis the Maharastra government was attempting to force the Bengalees who are genuine Indian citizens, out of Maharastra. The Calcutta High Court’s verdict on Wednesday came in response to a case filed by the West Bengal government challenging the Maharastra DG’s order authorizing the Maharastra police to push them back into Bangladesh across the border.

It may be mentioned here that last year a group of people at Uluberia station seized from the custody of a team of policemen from Maharastra, several Bengalees who were being taken purportedly for being pushed back into Bangladesh across the international border from a Howrah bound train. The crowd got the Bengalees alighted from the train. Inquiries revealed later they were all genuine Indian nationals, some of them were even permanent residents of Uluberia, Bagnan. They had all gone to Mumbai for a living. Some of them were employed in Jewelers’ shops as artisans.

The West Bengal government counsel in his deposition before the court said that many of those arrested by the Maharastra police were Indian citizens.

They were denied opportunity to prove their Indian citizenship. The Advocate General of Tripura, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacjarya in his deposition said that many of those arrested by the Maharastra police had been put into police custody in the darkness of night from their residences branding them as intruders. The majority of them were Bengalees and Indian citizens. They had their permanent residences in Howrah, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas, Murshidabad and Malda. They had been enrolled as voters for a long time, had their ration cards too. They had with them certificates from the local MLA, MP justifying their Indian citizenship. Documents from municipal bodies and panchayet also corroborated this view.

Unfortunately the Maharastra government had not accepted these documents as proof of their Indian citizenship. They said that as per the Indian constitution any Indian citizen had to the right to stay in any part of the country and eke out a living. The Maharastra government order was violative of the provisions of the Indian constitution. It did not even consulted the West Bengal government on the issue.