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The Gauhati High Court has directed the Assam government to pay Tk 2 lakh in compensation to the family of Mumtaz Begum, a Bengali-speaking Muslim woman who was allegedly pushed back from India to Bangladesh.
The court’s order marks the first known instance of a state government in India being directed to pay compensation or legal costs for violating deportation procedures while sending a person to Bangladesh.
Mumtaz Begum’s family filed a habeas corpus petition before the Gauhati High Court and later learned that she had allegedly been forcibly sent from India to Bangladesh.
The court subsequently made India’s Ministry of External Affairs a party to the case.
The court said the Indian government would be directed to make efforts to trace Mumtaz Begum in Bangladesh and bring her back to India.
The High Court also expressed strong dissatisfaction with the role of the Nagaon Foreigners Tribunal in the case involving her deportation.
During the hearing of the habeas corpus petition, a division bench comprising Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Susmita Phukan Khaund observed that the steps taken by the Foreigners Tribunal indicated, from the records themselves, “a mala fide action through misuse of law.”
The court’s observations came while examining the circumstances surrounding Mumtaz Begum’s removal from India to Bangladesh.