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Assam Cabinet Approves New SOP to Expel Illegal Immigrants Without Tribunal Route

  • By Thetripurapost Desk, Gwahati
  • Sep 10, 2025
  • 688

The Assam Cabinet on Tuesday approved a new standard operating procedure (SOP) that empowers district commissioners (DCs) and senior superintendents of police (SSPs) to identify and expel illegal immigrants within 10 days, bypassing the state’s overburdened Foreigners’ Tribunals.

Under the new framework:

Immediate pushback: Anyone detected within 12 hours of crossing into Assam, or found near the zero line along the Indo-Bangladesh border, will be pushed back immediately.

10-day proof deadline: Suspects must furnish valid proof of Indian citizenship within 10 days. If not, the DC will issue an expulsion order, giving the person 24 hours to leave through a designated route.

Tribunal referral only if unclear: Only cases where officials cannot make a prima facie call will be forwarded to the Foreigners’ Tribunals.

Past tribunal-declared foreigners: Individuals already declared foreigners after exhausting appeals will face direct expulsion.


Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the overhaul was vital to clear the backlog of 82,000 cases pending in the tribunals. “The current route through Foreigners’ Tribunals may stretch till HC and SC. This Cabinet decision bypasses the tribunal system for the first time,” he stated.

Legal Basis

The new SOP derives authority from the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, a law specific to Assam but overshadowed for decades by the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983 (IMDT Act). The Supreme Court struck down IMDT in 2005, terming it discriminatory under Article 14 and inconsistent with Article 355 of the Constitution.

In October 2023, a constitutional bench ruling clarified that the 1950 Act should be the operative legal tool for identifying and expelling illegal immigrants in Assam.

Enforcement Measures

Biometric and demographic details of suspects will be recorded in the Foreigners Identification Portal.

Those defying expulsion orders will be sent to holding centres or handed over to the BSF.


Context

Assam has long been the epicentre of concerns about illegal immigration from Bangladesh, a factor that triggered the anti-foreigner agitation in the 1980s and led to the Assam Accord of 1985. The new Cabinet move represents the most sweeping policy shift since then in how the state tackles demographic anxieties tied to migration.