Sunali repatriation: Centre moves Supreme Court against Calcutta High Court

It’s a question not just about border safety guidelines, but about the shape of belonging and basic humanity in India. It’s the case of seven family members of Bengali migrant workers — of which three are young children and one was unborn — pushed into Bangladesh as ‘illegals’. One of them, who has become the iconic ‘face’ of the case, is Sunali Khatun, ragpicker and pregnant mother.

The Union government has now moved the Supreme Court, challenging a Calcutta High Court directive ordering the return of six Indian nationals — including a pregnant woman, three children and a foetus(!) — who were deported to Bangladesh earlier this year on suspicion of being illegal immigrants, the Times of India has reported. And the hearing of the case could well have a considerable ripple effect, with this being but one case in a series of similar episodes.

Families of Bengali migrants deported to Bangladesh stare at endless uncertainty

The Centre’s petition, filed on 22 October, seeks to overturn the high court’s 26 September order mandating the repatriation of Sunali Khatun, her husband Danish Sk, their eight-year-old son Sabir, and their neighbours Sweety Bibi and her two young sons — all residents of Birbhum district in West Bengal. The Calcutta High Court had directed that the six be brought back to India within four weeks, a deadline that lapsed on 24 October.

The government’s appeal comes amid growing pressure from human rights groups and the families of those deported, who had been preparing to move the high court again to enforce the repatriation order.

Sunali and the others, who worked as ragpickers in Delhi’s Rohini area, were detained by authorities on 21 June, allegedly for lacking valid documents. Just three days later, on 24 June, the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) ordered that they be held at a local community centre. A deportation order followed swiftly on 26 June, and the six were pushed across the border into Bangladesh the same day — without what their lawyer later described as “even the barest procedural due diligence.”

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Their ordeal did not end there. On 21 August, Bangladeshi authorities arrested them for illegal entry and detained them in prison, where they have remained since.

Acting on a habeas corpus petition filed by Sunali’s father, Bhodu Sheikh, the Calcutta High Court took strong exception to the deportation process. The bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobroto Kumar Mitra noted that Sunali was eight months pregnant when she was expelled and that all six detainees were, in fact, long-term residents of Birbhum with deep familial roots in India.

The court set aside the FRRO’s order, directed the Union government to coordinate with the Indian High Commission in Dhaka for their safe return, and observed that the treatment of the six raised “serious concerns about administrative fairness and the sanctity of citizenship”.

Father of another Bengali migrant worker deported to B'desh moves HC

However, the Centre and the Delhi Police have questioned the jurisdiction of the Calcutta High Court to hear the matter at all! Because apparently that is the justice and due process that matters here.

Additional solicitor general Asok Kumar Chakrabarti, appearing for the Union government, argued that two similar petitions were already pending before the Delhi High Court and that the petitioner, Bhodu Sheikh, had “suppressed material facts” while moving the Calcutta bench.

“The question is not merely of repatriation,” said a senior official familiar with the case. “It is about whether due legal process was followed — both in the deportation and in the high court’s intervention.”

For many observers, the case underscores a deeper moral dilemma — of how the machinery of the state often fails the poorest, even as the Constitution promises protection to all.

“Every authority has the right to seek relief from a higher forum,” said lawyer Raghunath Chakraborty, who represented Sunali’s family before the High Court. “But given the humanitarian aspect — a pregnant woman, two minor children and families torn apart — one hoped this would be resolved swiftly, with compassion.”

Now, as the Supreme Court takes up the case, it will have to balance the fine lines between legality and humanity, between administrative protocol and moral conscience.

At its heart, the Sunali Khatun case is more than a matter of borders — it is a test of how far the law will go to protect those who fall through its cracks.

The scripting of Bengalis as ‘Bangladeshi’