Assam Invokes 1950 Expulsion Law for first time, orders to leave India within 24 hours

In the first recorded use of the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, since the state cabinet cleared procedures for its implementation earlier this year, the Sonitpur district administration has ordered five individuals to “remove” themselves from India within 24 hours.

The five – four women and one man, reportedly from two families – were declared foreigners by Sonitpur’s Foreigners Tribunal No. 2 earlier in 2024.

According to orders signed by Deputy Commissioner Ananda Kumar Das, their presence in Assam is deemed “detrimental to the interest of the general public” and to the state’s internal security.

The notices direct them to exit India through routes in Dhubri, Sribhumi, or South Salmara-Mankachar, which lead toward Bangladesh. If they fail to comply, the orders warn of “appropriate action” to ensure their removal from the state.

After the expulsion notices were issued on Tuesday, Sonitpur police visited Dhobokata village, where the individuals were last listed as residents. Senior Superintendent of Police Barun Purkayastha said the five are “absconding” and their current location is unknown. Police teams are searching for them, he added.

Locals, however, say the families moved away more than a decade ago. Residents claim the two families arrived nearly 20 years ago from central Assam, but suspicion in the village led some locals to report them to the border police.

The Assam cabinet approved standard operating procedures for the 1950 law in September, reviving a statute that had remained practically unused since it was enacted.

The Act was introduced by the Union government after Assam sought stronger measures to curb migration from then East Pakistan in the years following Partition.

It empowers the Centre – or officers authorised by it – to order any person who was originally a resident outside India, and whose stay is considered harmful to public interests or to Scheduled Tribes in Assam, to leave the state or the country within a specified time and by a designated route.

Deportation requires verification by the receiving country and formal handover of the individual.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has argued that invoking the 1950 Act allows the state to “bypass diplomatic channels”, a claim that legal experts say could invite further scrutiny, given that Bangladesh must confirm nationality in any cross-border expulsion.