The Supreme Court on Tuesday was informed by the Central government that the issue of deportation of persons declared foreigners in Assam was under consideration at the “highest executive level”.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Central government, told a bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan that the matter is under consideration at the “highest executive level” and a decision on deporting the identified foreigners was likely by March 21.

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As sought by the solicitor general, the bench granted more time to the Centre to place on record its decision on deporting the foreign nationals declared residing illegally in Assam and posted the matter for hearing on March 21.

In the hearing of the matter on February 4, the Supreme Court had taken to task the Assam government for not taking steps to deport persons declared as foreigners and for keeping them in detention centres indefinitely and directed it to start the deportation process immediately.

The top court had directed the state government to initiate steps for deporting 63 foreign nationals, kept in detention centres, within two weeks, while questioning the state government’s claim that deportation was not possible as migrants didn’t disclose their foreign addresses.

“You have refused to start deportation saying their addresses are not known. Why should it be our concern? You deport them to their foreign country. Are you waiting for some ‘muhurat’ (auspicious time)? Even without an address, you can deport them. You can’t continue to detain them indefinitely,” the bench had told Assam’s Chief Secretary.

The bench had further said, “Once they are held to be foreigners, they should be deported immediately. You know their citizenship status. Then how can you wait till their address is received? It is for the other country to decide where they should go.”

The strong observation from the bench in the last hearing came in the course of the hearing of a matter relating to foreigners detained in detention centres in Assam and seeking the release of persons who have completed more than two years in the detention centres.