Bengali migrants illegally held, says West Bengal; Supreme Court seeks response of 8 states

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Thursday sought responses from eight states, including Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, on a petition by the West Bengal Migrant Workers Welfare Board alleging unauthorised detention of Muslim migrant workers from WB on mere suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals.

Appearing for the West Bengal govt-run board, advocate Prashant Bhushan accused police in UP, Maharashtra, Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Delhi of arbitrarily detaining migrant labourers from Bengal and alleged that some were deported despite sufficient documents to prove Indian nationality.

Bhushan said the board had no objection to inquiries to establish nationality of Bengali-speaking Muslims, but detention should be only of non-Indians. Seeking a restraint on such detentions, he was told by a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi that the court would first consider the states' responses before passing any interim order. The matter will be heard again within a fortnight.

The petition, filed under Article 32, challenged the legality of these detentions in light of an MHA letter dated May 2, 2025, authorising inter-state verification and detention of suspected illegal immigrants - issued prior to Operation Sindoor.

The board said workers from WB, mostly in low-income, informal sectors in these states, face systemic exclusion on linguistic and economic grounds, but did not explain why they still choose to work outside West Bengal. It alleged such detentions, without lawful procedures, violate Articles 14 & 15, erode dignity, and impede the right to livelihood.