Gauhati High Court directs state government to move six Detention Centres out of district jail premises

In a recent order, the Gauhati High Court asked the Assam government to take necessary steps to move six detention centres out of district jail premises. The centres are housing foreign nationals/illegal migrants awaiting deportation..While doing so, the Court upheld the Centre’s communications based on the Supreme Court order in Bhim Singh, Mla v. State Of Jammu & Kashmir that detention units should be set up outside jail premises. It also directed the State to submit an action taken report by October 16. .Highlighting this, the order passed by Justice Achintya Malla Bujor Barua reads as follows:."Although the authorities in the State of Assam refers to a subsequent communication of the Govt. of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Foreigners Division dated 07.09.2018 wherein, in paragraph 3 it is provided that in case the setting up of such detention centres/holding centres/camps outside jail premises is pending, a specific area in jail premises has to be earmarked by the State Government for housing such foreign nationals/illegal migrants who are awaiting deportation as purely temporary measure and that such premises are well segregated from the prisons and the prison procedure applicable to the under trials and prisoners are not made applicable to the foreigner nationals/illegal migrants detention centres."Gauhati High Court .Referring to the judgment in Bhim Singh, the Court observed,."The Supreme Court had clearly provided that the detenues be kept at an appropriate place with restricted movements pending their deportation/repatriation and the places where they are to be kept may be detention centres or whatever name such places are called but must have the basic facilities of electricity, water and hygiene etc.".It was further noted that in 2012 and 2014, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had issued the two communications addressed to all the governments. As per these communications, such foreigners were to be released from jail immediately and kept at an appropriate place outside the jail premises, with restricted movement pending repatriation. .The 2014 communication had directed the state government to set up sufficient numbers of detention centres/holding centres/camps for restricting the movement of illegal migrants/foreign nationals. The said communication also required that such detention centres should be set up outside the jail premises and be provided with basic facilities, the Bench observed. .After going through the contents of the 2014 communication, the Court said, ."From the aforesaid, it is discernible that the detention centres must be outside the jail premises and secondly pending any acquisition of lands and construction of buildings, the State Government may find suitable accommodations for the purpose and if government buildings are not available, the State Government may look for hiring private buildings for the purpose.".The authorities in the State of Assam also referred to a subsequent communication of the Government of India dated September 7, 2018, which informed that where the setting up of the detention centres/holding centres was pending, a specific area in the jail premises was to be earmarked for housing foreign nationals/illegal migrants on a temporary basis..However, taking note of the facts, the Court opined, ."From the above notifications, it is discernible that more than 10 years have gone by, since a part of the jail premises in Goalpara, Kokrajhar and Silchar had been declared to be detention centres. Certainly a period of more than 10 years cannot be understood to be a temporary arrangement. Even in respect of Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Tezpur a period of 5 years is almost over which also again cannot be strictly said to be a temporary arrangement.".The petition before the Court was filed by Studio Nilima, through its co-founder and Director, Abantee Dutta. Senior Advocate Nilay Dutta appeared for the petitioner..[Read order]