The Centre has moved the Supreme Court challenging a Calcutta High Court order directing it to bring back two migrant worker families from West Bengal’s Birbhum district who had been pushed into Bangladesh and accused of being undocumented immigrants, The Times of India reported.

The High Court had on September 26 set aside the deportation order against six persons, including eight-month pregnant Sunali Khatun. It had directed that they be brought back to West Bengal within four weeks.

The four-week period ended on October 24, The Times of India reported.

The Centre filed its petition on October 22, just days before the deadline, amid reports that the families of the deported persons were planning to move the High Court for directions to ensure compliance with its repatriation order.

The Union government and the Delhi Police have questioned whether the Calcutta High Court had the jurisdiction to hear the case at all, according to The Times of India.

Additional Solicitor General Asok Kumar Chakrabarti argued that Sunali Khatun’s father, Bhodu Sheikh – who filed the habeas corpus plea – had suppressed the fact that two petitions on a similar matter were already pending before the Delhi High Court.

In its earlier order, the Calcutta High Court had asked the Union government to submit an affidavit explaining the process of deportation and to disclose the location from where the families had been pushed across the border.

In its affidavit, the Centre had alleged that the detainees are Bangladeshi nationals.

Since May, thousands of Bengali-speaking migrant workers have been rounded up in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party and asked to prove that they were Indian citizens, and not undocumented immigrants.

In several cases, workers have been declared foreigners within days and forced into Bangladesh, despite being Indian citizens.

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Sunali Khatun’s relatives have said that she, her husband Danish Sheikh and their eight-year-old child were among six persons detained from Delhi in June and forced across the border.

The other family that was deported was of Sweety Bibi (32) and her two sons, aged six and 16, also from Birbhum.

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