The bench of Justice S B Sinha and Justice P K Balasubramanyam directed the Centre to constitute within four months sufficient number of tribunals to detect infiltration of thousands of Bangladeshis into Assam.

In July, 2005, the Supreme Court had struck down as ‘‘unconstitutional’’ the Illegal Migration Detection by Tribunal (IMDT) Act. After its quashing, the Centre, through a notification in February this year, issued the Foreigner (Tribunals for Assam) Order, 2006, which was challenged by AGP MP Sarbananda Sonowal and others.

In the petition, it was alleged that the notification was nothing but a repetition of the quashed IMDT Act which put the onus of proving a person an illegal foreigner on the complainant. The Centre defended the notification, contending that it was aimed at preventing harassment of genuine Indian citizens who could otherwise be victimised in the name of detection and deportation. The Centre claimed that the notification was brought in to overcome difficulties in identifying the immigrants due to their ethnic similarities with Bengali-speaking Indians.

The Centre had argued that the notification did not “in any way” contravene Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946, on the question of burden of proof, as alleged. The petitioners, who were represented by senior counsel Ashok Desai, Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad, had submitted that if the notification was to be implemented it would be impossible to detect and deport illegal migrants.

Besides quashing the controversial notification, the Supreme Court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the Centre to be paid to the petitioners.

In Guwahati, reacting to the verdict, petitioner Sonowal said: “The Foreigners (Tribunals for Assam) Order was an an attempt by the Congress to fool the people of the country after the Supreme Court had so convincingly struck down the IMDT Act.”

The BJP too hailed the SC order. “The Supreme Court has once again reminded the Congress that it is not easy to protect Bangladeshi infiltrators. They (Congress) first tried it with the IMDT Act, and when that was struck down, the party shamelessly introduced the Order which met the same fate today,” said Dhurba Prasad Baishya, Assam BJP vice-president.

The Congress declined comment on the order. In fact, the Foreigners (Tribunals for Assam) Order was introduced after a section of Muslims launched the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) last year — Badruddin Ajmal became its head — and mounted pressure on the UPA in the run-up to the Assam Assembly polls. The AUDF’s emergence threatened the Congress which almost lost the polls, its strength dropping from 75 seats to 53. Had it not been for an alliance with the Bodo People’s Progressive Front (BPPF), the Congress would have lost Assam.