NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed displeasure over matters concerning politics and governance coming to it. The top court said this when a petition seeking directions to the central government and state governments to identify, detain and deport all illegal migrants and infiltrators including Bangladeshis and Rohingyas within one year was mentioned before it.
Chief Justice NV Ramana asked advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay why he is bringing so many public interest litigations relating to politics, population and other matters to them when it is the government’s domain.
"These are political issues. Please take it up with the government. If we have to take up all your PILs, then why did we elect the government? There are houses like Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha,” the CJI said.
He said that the matter requires the court's attention. The top court said that the matters would be heard once the Union government and states have filed their responses to it.
The plea has further sought directions to the central and state governments to amend the respective laws to make illegal migration and infiltration a cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable offence.
The petition by Upadhyay seeks direction to the central and state governments to declare the making of forged/fabricated PAN cards, Aadhaar cards, passports, ration cards, voter cards and other such documents a non-bailable, non-compoundable and cognisable offence and amend respective laws accordingly.
“Large-scale illegal immigration, particularly from Myanmar and Bangladesh, has not only threatened the demographic structure of bordering districts but also seriously impaired security and national integration, particularly in the present circumstances. The need for expeditious identification of illegal migrants is more pressing now than ever. It is not a matter of dealing with a religious or linguistic group but a question of identifying those who illegally crossed over the border and continue to live in India contrary to law and Constitution,” the petition reads,
“That there are other contributory factors facilitating infiltration from Bangladesh and Myanmar. Ethnic, linguistic and religious commonality between the illegal migrants and many people on our side of the border enables them to find shelter. It makes their detection difficult. Some political parties have been encouraging and even helping illegal migration with a view to build vote banks. These immigrants work for lower remuneration than local people. This makes them acceptable. With corruption being all pervasive, corrupt officials are bribed to provide help. Many such rackets have been busted. Recently many individuals were found providing forged citizenship certificates and other documents to migrants,” it added.