Realising that deportation of lakhs of Bangladeshi migrants who have infiltrated into the Indian border is a “herculean task”, the Supreme Court on Thursday made an exceptionally strong pitch for issuance of unique national ID cards to all citizens.

“Every Indian should be given an identity card. And those who would not have it, should be deported right away,” said Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan, adding “to begin with, it must be done at least in border areas”.

“It (project) has to be done. Every Indian should have such a card on the basis of which admission to schools, colleges or employment could be given. It should be the identity of every individual who’s a citizen of this country.”

These observations were made by a three-member Bench while hearing a PIL by an NGO, All Indian Lawyers Forum for Civil Liberties.

The Bench, also comprising Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal, noted that even if they were identified and kept in transit camps before deporting, “they enjoy more privileges than an Indian citizen. They get everything for free”.

The multi-purpose national identity card (MNIC) project, an e-governance initiative, was announced by the previous NDA government way back in 2002. The pilot project of providing such cards was over in March last year with distribution of about 12 lakh cards, mainly in border states. The project, which is now under the maintenance period till March 2009, has not yet been extended to cover the entire country.

Observing that governments had failed to check infiltration of lakhs of such migrants, the CJI suggested that facilities like ration, education and employment should be extended “only to citizens”. “An employer should be punished if he employs anybody other than an Indian citizen,” the CJI said, as the petitioner’s counsel was reading out response of the West Bengal Government.

... contd.