The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Union government why it needed Dhaka to verify the identity of undocumented Bangladeshi migrants before deporting them, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan was hearing a 2013 petition concerning undocumented immigrants being held indefinitely in “correctional homes” in West Bengal after serving sentences under the Foreigners Act.

The Act allows the Union government to regulate the entry, presence and departure of foreigners.

“[When an immigrant is] apprehended, put to trial, and is convicted, what is the charge against him?” Pardiwala was quoted as saying. “That you are an illegal immigrant. You are not entitled to stay in this country without any valid passport or any other document.”

He added: “Once this comes, not challenged, not stayed by any superior court, then what is the idea in asking the neighbouring country to tell this country about his nationality and verification?”

The court also criticised the West Bengal government for not having correctional homes or detention centres, causing undocumented migrants to stay in prison even after serving their sentences.

“Even after a person is convicted, he undergoes the entire sentence, you keep him in jail?” the court asked. “How can you do that? Is the state so poor that it does not have a correctional home or a detention centre? It’s very easy for you to put a board outside the jail premises ‘correctional home’ but still it remains a jail.”

The bench said that “immediate steps” need to be taken to deport the undocumented migrants. “Just imagine 1,000-plus people are undertrials.”

In the previous hearing on February 3, the court noted that despite the case being transferred to the Supreme Court nearly 12 years ago, there has been no significant progress, The Indian Express reported.

On January 30, the court asked the Centre and the West Bengal government to clarify the role played by the state government in cases where Bangladeshi nationals are in correctional homes in West Bengal even after they have completed their sentences.