RAJESH P MANKAD Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition has been preferred under the caption "Public Interest Litigation" alleging illegal and unconstitutional action on the part of the respondents in arresting, detaining and deporting Bangladeshis near Chandola lake. Prayer has been made to declare the action of the respondents of arresting, detaining and deporting the persons named in Annexure B annexed with the affidavit filed by Shri Ishwarbhai N. Desai, Assistant Commissioner of Police, in Special Criminal Application No. 2374 of 2009 is without sanction of law, unauthorized and without jurisdiction and violative of Article 21 of the Constitution of India. In the said list, names of 75 person have been mentioned who were located at dwelling place at Shiyasatnagar. Prayer has been made to provide them adequate compensation for the hardships suffered by them. Further prayer has been made to prohibit the respondents from arresting, detaining or deporting any other persons from Shiyasatnagar or any other part of the State of Gujarat without following the procedure prescribed under the Foreigners Act, 1948 read with the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964. Interim prayer has also been made to direct the respondents to call back all such persons who have been deported from amongst those 75 persons shown in the list and restore them to Shiyasatnagar and to restrain the respondents from arresting them or deporting them.

(2.) According to the petitioner, Shiyasatnagar is situated near Chandola lake in Shah-e-Alam, Danilimda area of the city of Ahmedabad. There were 182 hutments which were constructed after the original hutments of the residents were burnt during the 2002 riots. The hutment dwellers are poor labourers. Sometime in the month of April, 2009, a team of policemen led by the Police Inspector Incharge Special Operation Group, Crime Branch, Ahmedabad carried out raid at Shiyasatnagar and illegally arrested and detained around 100 persons including men, women and children and kept them in a lock up of Special Operation Group (SOG) at Juhapura. The petitioner came to know about such action on the part of the police from the news published in the newspaper The Indian Express", Ahmedabad edition dated 23.10.2009. From such newspaper, the petitioner came to know the story of a five year old mentally challenged child viz. Tariq, whose mother Sorubibi had gone on record stating that people from SOG had hit on her eyes and taken away her three children viz. Haroon (13 years), Shafiq (10 years) and Tariq (5 years). While inquiring whereabouts of Tariq and other two children, the petitioner came to know that the SOG was planning to deport several persons who were earlier picked up from Shiyasatnagar on 23.4.2009 and other places. Petitioner Jan Sangarsh Manch helped the mother of the three children who filed a habeas corpus petition in Special Civil Application No. 2374 of 2009 in which notice was issued and an affidavit has been filed on 22.12.2009 by one Shri Ishwarbhai N. Desai, Assistant Commissioner of Police, SOG. Thus, the petitioner came to know that they are arrested and deported being Bangladeshis.

(3.) Further case of the petitioner is that on 3.11.2009, the petitioner came to know that the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation had demolished 329 hutments of Shiyasatnagar without any notice. They were constructed for the rehabilitation of the riot victims. A public interest litigation in this regard being Special Civil Application No. 14664 of 2008 has already been filed by some NGOs before this Court for rehabilitating the demolished hutment dwellers in which notice has been issued by this Court. From the affidavit as filed in the said case, the petitioner could come to know that around 75 persons residing at Chandola lake were detained and have been described as citizens of Bangladesh including the three children of Sorubibi. It is stated that from the photo identify card of Sorubibi, one can find out that she was born as Indian and thereby she is a citizen of India by birth.