Assam: 1.16 lakh declared foreigners untraced, Gauhati HC calls it grim

The Gauhati High Court has described Assam's record on expelling declared foreigners as "a very grim picture", after the state government told it that 1,16,946 people declared foreign nationals had still not been apprehended or expelled as of June 30, 2026.

The figure, compiled by the Senior Superintendent of Police (Border), Assam, was placed before a division bench of Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Mridul Kumar Kalita in the state's affidavit. According to The Sentinel, the untraced declared foreigners are spread across 36 districts.

The case that brought out the number

The figure came up in a petition by Hamida Begum, whom a Foreigners Tribunal in Jorhat declared a foreigner in December 2018. The Tribunal held that she had entered India illegally after March 25, 1971 (the Assam Accord cut-off) because she could not prove her citizenship. Under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946, that burden of proof falls on the person, not on the state.

The High Court dismissed her challenge in October 2020, the Supreme Court dismissed her special leave petition in November 2025, and her review petition was rejected in March 2026. Still in detention, she asked the High Court to order her release.

The state said she had run out of legal remedies and that arrangements for her expulsion were in place. The bench agreed. It cited Sections 3(2)(g) and 4 of the Foreigners Act, which allow the Centre to order the arrest and detention of foreigners. It also held that an illegal migrant is excluded from the arrest safeguards of Article 22 of the Constitution under clause 3 of that Article. The petition was dismissed as not maintainable, and bail was refused.

In the same order, the court said the Central and State governments have a duty to protect the country's unity and integrity.

How big is 1.16 lakh?

Figures given to the Assam Assembly in July 2026 put the number in context.

• People declared foreigners, all time: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told the House that 56,728 people had been declared foreigners from D-voter references, plus 831 more by courts after appeals to the High Court. A separate 1,15,945 were declared foreigners from cases referred by the Assam Border Police. In another written reply, he put the total of foreigners identified under the Assam Accord at 1,72,673.
• Expelled, all time: 31,789, according to Sarma.
• Still pending: 73,759 cases before Foreigners Tribunals, per Sarma. Border Protection Minister Atul Bora put pending D-voter cases at 41,059 on May 31.
• In custody: 174 identified foreigners held at the Matia transit camp in Goalpara district.

Set against the 1,72,673 identified, the court's figure means about two of every three people ever identified as foreigners in Assam are recorded as not yet apprehended or expelled.

The recent pace

According to Bora, tribunals declared 36,358 people foreigners from 2021 to May 31, 2026, falling from a peak of 9,028 in 2022 to 5,106 in 2025. Over roughly the same period, only 196 declared foreigners were "deported, sent back or expelled" to Bangladesh: one a year in 2021-2023, none in 2024, 126 in 2025 and 67 in the first half of 2026.

In 2025 the state also changed its method. As The Indian Express has reported, since May 2025 the state has "pushed back" declared foreigners across the border without first verifying their nationality with Bangladesh. It later revived the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, which lets district commissioners and senior superintendents of police order people out of the state. Government data cited by the paper shows 1,679 people were sent to Bangladesh between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2026. Only 192 of them had been declared foreigners by tribunals, plus one infant sent across with her mother.

The Chief Minister wants faster expulsions. According to The Times of India, he has said the state could expel 10,000 to 50,000 people a year and that declared foreigners should be sent out within a week of a tribunal order, instead of waiting for appeals. In March, The Assam Tribune reported that 12 people, mostly from Matia, were pushed back via Sutarkandi without the knowledge of Bangladesh's mission in Guwahati.

Why it matters in Assam

An expulsion order means little if the person cannot be traced, and that gap between tribunal orders and expulsions is what the court called grim. It is also why the issue keeps coming back in politics, from the Assam Accord's 1971 cut-off to the 91,385 D-voters who are still on the rolls and can't vote until their cases are settled. We covered the current revision in our report on Assam's draft voter roll.

Activists told Reuters in 2025 that long-term residents are often wrongly classified as foreigners. The state's position is that tribunal orders upheld on appeal are final and must be carried out.

What to watch

The remarks put pressure on the Home department and Border Police to show how they will trace declared foreigners, not just detain those in custody. Hamida Begum's expulsion will show whether formal deportation or the 1950 Act route is used.