SC allows re-entry of woman, 8-year-old son months after illegal deportation to Bangladesh

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Sanjay Hegde, representing Khatun’s father, urged the apex court to send Khatun and her child to Birbhum, where her family lives. (Image: X//AITC)

The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, allowed a pregnant woman and her eight-year-old child to re-enter India on “humanitarian grounds”, months after they were pushed across the border into Bangladesh.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi directed the West Bengal government to take responsibility for the child and asked the chief medical officer of Birbhum district to provide all necessary medical care to the woman, Sunali Khatun, including a free-of-cost delivery.

The court recorded Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s statement that the competent authority had agreed to permit the woman and her child into India “purely on humanitarian grounds without prejudice to rights and contentions”, and that they would remain under surveillance.

The bench was hearing the Centre’s appeal against the September 26 Calcutta High Court order, which had quashed the Centre's move to deport Khatun and others to Bangladesh, calling the action “illegal”. The top Court said the deportees would eventually be brought back to Delhi, from where they were picked up and pushed into Bangladesh.

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Sanjay Hegde, representing Khatun’s father, urged the apex court to send Khatun and her child to Birbhum, where her family lives. They also sought the return of other relatives, including Khatun’s husband, who remain stranded in Bangladesh.

Mehta said the Centre would contest their claim of Indian citizenship, insisting they were Bangladeshi nationals and that the woman and her child were being allowed in only on humanitarian grounds.

Justice Bagchi observed that if Khatun could prove she is the daughter of Bhodu Sheikh, “it would be sufficient to establish her Indian citizenship.”

The matter will be heard next on December 10.

Khatun’s father has alleged that families who had worked as daily wage earners in Delhi’s Rohini Sector 26 for over two decades were detained by police on June 18 on suspicion of being Bangladeshis and were pushed across the border on June 27.

The SC, on December 1, asked the Centre to consider allowing Khatun to return while keeping her under surveillance and sought instructions on permitting her to enter India through the Malda border in West Bengal. Hegde had told the court the family was waiting on the Bangladesh side and stressed that their deportation had already been declared illegal, adding, “they are Indian citizens.”

The Calcutta High Court’s September 26 order had quashed the deportation of Khatun and Sweety Bibi, both from Birbhum, and directed the Centre to bring six deported individuals back within a month. The court had rejected the Centre’s plea for a temporary stay.

Its orders stemmed from two habeas corpus petitions filed by Bhodu Sheikh and Amir Khan, who alleged that their relatives, including Khatun, her husband Danesh Sheikh, their five-year-old son, and Bibi and her two children, were detained in Delhi and pushed into Bangladesh. The deported families were reportedly arrested by Bangladeshi authorities after crossing over.

The high court noted that the FRRO, Delhi, had deported the families under a May 2, 2025, memo of the Union Home Ministry outlining protocols for repatriating illegal migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar, which mandate an inquiry by the concerned state or Union territory.

It held that “the proceeding for deportation was conducted in hot haste” and in violation of these protocols. “The detainees have their relations residing in the State of West Bengal… the kind of overenthusiasm in deporting the detainees, as visible herein, is susceptible to misunderstanding and disturbs the judicial climate in the country,” the court observed.