The case of Sunali Khatun: Why pregnant woman deported to Bangladesh is now allowed to return to India

The Supreme Court has allowed a pregnant woman to return to India from Bangladesh.

This came after the Centre told the apex court it was prepared to bring back Sunali Khatun on ‘humanitarian grounds’. Khatun was deported to Bangladesh alongside her eight-year-old son on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant.

The apex court has directed authorities to provide medical care for Khatun free of cost as well as look after her son. The development came amid the apex court hearing a challenge from the Centre to a Calcutta High Court directive ordering it to bring back some deportees from Bangladesh. The High Court in its order had said that the Centre had not followed proper procedure.

Sunali Khatun case

The case began after one Bodu Sheikh approached the Calcutta High Court with a habeas corpus petition. Sheikh, who claimed to be a permanent resident of West Bengal and an Indian citizen, in his plea told the court that his daughter Sunali Khatun and her family, including her husband Danish and their eight-year-old son, were picked up by the police in New Delhi’s Rohini sector in June.

Khatun and her family hailed from West Bengal’s Birbhum district, Paikar village in Birbhum district of Bengal. However, they had been living and working in New Delhi as ragpickers for two decades. Khatun, who sells utensils, married Danish, a resident of Delhi. Sheikh, who previously worked in Delhi as a rickshaw driver, in his petition said Khatun and her family were held by the Delhi Police from KN Katju Marg station. This came amid an ‘identity verification drive’.

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Authorities claimed that Khatun and her family were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. This was despite Khatun and her family showing documents such as their Aadhaar and voter ID cards. However, the police then gave Khatun and her family over to the Border Security Force. This was done on the suspicion of them being “Bangladeshi”.

Sheikh has claimed that Khatun was blindfolded and that her family was pushed into Bangladesh ‘during the dead of night’ on 26 June via India’s Mehedi border. They were allowed to take no possessions with them and were reportedly warned that they would be shot if they attempted to return.

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Khatun was among half a dozen people deported, including three minors. This included her friend Sweety Bibi, who also hails from the same district in Bengal, and her two children Kurban (16) and Iman (5). Their ordeal didn’t end there. In August, Sunali and her family were arrested in Chapainawabganj by the Bangladesh Police under the Passport Act and Foreigners Act.

Courts get involved

Then, the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court in September ordered the government to bring Khatun and her family back to Bengal within a month. This came after Sheikh and Bibi’s families, with help from the West Bengal Migrant Labour Welfare Board, filed habeas corpus petitions in the Calcutta High Court.

The court voided the Centre’s deportation order against the two families, saying, “Acting in hot haste to deport them is a clear violation which renders the deportation order bad in law, and liable to be set aside.” The ruling was made by the Division Bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Ritabrata Kumar Mitra. The court, rejecting the Centre’s stay request, ordered the government to bring the families back to West Bengal within a month.

However, the Centre then challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court. The Ministry of Home Affairs claimed that the court lacked jurisdiction to try the case since the arrest and deportation occurred in Delhi.

Meanwhile, in October, the Chapainawabganj court in Bangladesh ruled that Sunali and her family were Indian citizens. It made this determination on the basis of their Aadhaar cards and residential addresses in West Bengal. The court too ordered them to be sent back to India.

“It has been found that all accused persons are Indian Aadhaar card holder citizens… In this situation, for the matter of legal push back to India and for other official formalities, it is necessary to inform the Indian High Commission in Dhaka,” the court’s order stated.

‘Never imagined this would happen’

The Sheikh family say that Khatun found shelter in Bangladesh’s Rajshahi. They managed to make contact back home with help from locals. Though Khatun, who is pregnant, is being given two meals per day by locals, they worry about her stress levels and malnutrition.

“I’ve been in Delhi for 30 years. I never imagined something like this would happen,” Sheikh told The Wire.

Khatun’s mother Jyotsna Bibi added, “I begged her so much, the girl didn’t come for Eid. She said, ‘I won’t get leave from work. You go, I’ll come later.’ She sent one child to live with us. That child cries all day for his mother. What crime has Sunali committed? Ask around the area. If anyone says we’re Bangladeshi, we’ll leave the village today.”

The family reportedly has land deeds going as far back as 1952. Villagers too have confirmed that the Sheikhs have lived there for generations. Khatun’s son also has a birth certificate. Khatun’s sister Karishma told Indian Express, “Sunali’s daughter cries for her every night. It has been months since she saw her mother, father and brother.”

Khatun’s lawyer has said that the names of both Bodu and Jyotsna are on the 2002 Bengal voter list, which strengthens her case of Indian citizenship.

‘Bend in humanitarian interest’

The apex court has ordered the Centre to bring Khatun and her eight-year-old son back from Bangladesh.

Justice Joymala Bagchi said if Bodu Sheikh’s citizenship is not in question and if Sunali is his daughter, she and her children are citizens of India under the Citizenship Act.

“If she can establish biological connection with Bodu Sheikh (father), then she can claim to be an Indian citizen and through her, the son also becomes Indian,” Bagchi said.

Chief Justice Surya Kant, who headed the bench, said the state must on occasion “bend in humanitarian interest”. Kant directed the Centre to make all the necessary arrangements for Khatun and her son to return.

This came days after the apex court asked the Centre whether Khatun and her son could be returned to India “on humanitarian grounds”.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi this will be done “without prejudice to our contentions on merits and our right to put them under surveillance”.

The apex court in its order said, “The Solicitor General, on instructions, informs that purely on humanitarian grounds, the Government of India has agreed to bring back Sunali Khatun along with her eight-year-old son Sabir. Since Sunali was taken into custody from Delhi, the Solicitor General informs that she will be brought back to Delhi. However, there is a suggestion by the learned senior counsel representing the respondents that it will be advisable to shift her to the town where her father stays in the district of Birbhum.”

With inputs from agencies