The new building of the Jharkhand High Court.
Credit: Jharkhand High Court website
Ranchi: The Jharkhand High Court on Friday reserved its order in a public interest litigation on the presence of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in the state.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad and Justice Arun Kumar Rai took up the plea filed by a person named Danish Daniel.
The petitioner claimed that illegal immigrants from the neighbouring country were seeking refuge in the Santhal Parganas districts of Jharkhand.
The bench, after hearing the arguments of the Union government, the state government as well as the petitioner, reserved its order in the matter.
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing before the court via the virtual mode, mentioned about a proposed high-level fact-finding committee being formed with the Union home secretary and chief secretary of the state as its key members.
The panel would discuss the matter and provide its report, Mehta said.
Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, representing the state government virtually, alleged that the PIL has purposely been timed to gain political mileage ahead of the assembly elections.
Assembly polls in Jharkhand are due later this year.
Earlier, the central government had filed an affidavit, confirming the presence of illegal immigrants in Jharkhand’s Pakur and Sahibganj.
The high court had on September 18 said the deputy commissioners of Santhal Parganas districts provided "wrong" information that there were no illegal immigrants in the region.
In his petition, Daniel said that Bangladeshi refugees were entering Jharkhand through the porous borders in the Santhal Parganas.
The refugees were setting up madrasas and settlements in the region and disturbing the existence of the local tribal populace, the petition claimed.