Supreme Court seeks Centre's reply on plea for woman's repatriation from Bangladesh

The Supreme Court of India has issued a notice to the Central government seeking a response to a petition for the repatriation of Sahida Fakir, a woman from West Bengal. Her son, Sahin Fakir, alleges that she was an Indian citizen who was illegally detained in Mumbai on suspicion of being an undocumented immigrant and subsequently forcibly pushed across the border into Bangladesh.

The petition claims Fakir had lived and worked in Mumbai as a domestic worker for approximately 20 years. It alleges she was detained for over 100 hours without being produced before a magistrate, during which time her Aadhaar card and phone were seized. The plea further asserts that she was eventually handed over to the Border Security Force and forced into Bangladesh along with approximately 20 other detainees.

To support the claim of Indian citizenship, the petitioner cited electoral records, including her parents' names in the 2002 roll and her own voter identity card issued in 2008. While her name was recently marked as ‘under adjudication’ during a special intensive revision of electoral rolls, the petitioner argues this does not constitute a formal determination of her citizenship. Fakir is currently residing in a temporary shelter in Bangladesh.