Following directives issued by the Supreme Court, Gauhati High Court has directed Assam police to release inmates of detention centres in the state who have completed two years in detention.
In an order issued on April 15, the division bench of Justice Manojit Bhuyan and Justice Ajit Borthakur directed the police to compile a list of all such detainees and ensure that they are released.
Acting on two intervention petitions seeking the release of detention centre inmates over fears of them contracting Covid-19, the Supreme Court had ordered on April 13 that all detainees who had spent two years in detention should be released.
It was a modification of the Supreme Court’s order issued in May 2019 ordering the release of detainees who completed three years on furnishing two sureties of Rs 1 lakh each. The recent order reduced the amount for sureties to Rs 5,000 each.
There are six detention centres in Assam where those declared foreigners by foreigners’ tribunals are kept. According to government records, there were 802 inmates in these centres till March.
In its order, Gauhati High Court directed the border department of Assam police to prepare a list of eligible inmates and release them “expeditiously within an outer limit period of seven days”.
The court ordered the special director general of police (Border) to submit details of all those who have been released by the next date of hearing on April 25.
