The Assam cabinet has approved a new standard operating procedure that allows district commissioners and senior superintendents of police to identify and deport illegal migrants within 10 days, bypassing the long process through Foreigners’ Tribunals.

According to the SOP, migrants caught within 12 hours of entering Assam or intercepted near the zero line at the border will be sent back immediately. If an individual fails to provide proof of Indian citizenship within 10 days, the district commissioner will issue an expulsion order, giving them 24 hours to leave through a designated route.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the decision was necessary to reduce the mounting burden on the state’s tribunal system. "The current route through Foreigners' Tribunals till conclusion is a long one, which may stretch to the HC and SC. There are 82,000 pending cases in our tribunals. This Cabinet decision bypasses the tribunal system for the first time," he said.

The move marks a significant shift in Assam’s handling of illegal immigration, especially concerning migrants from Bangladesh. Bangladeshi Muslims have long been central to the state’s demographic anxieties and were at the heart of the 1980s anti-foreigner movement, which reshaped Assam’s politics and culminated in the Assam Accord of 1985.

This new system is based on the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act of 1950, a law drafted specifically for the state. It was later sidelined by the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, which applied only in Assam from October 15, 1983, while the rest of the country remained under the Foreigners Act of 1946.

The IM (DT) Act was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2005 after a petition filed by then student leader and now Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal. The court ruled that it was discriminatory and violated Article 14 on equality, as well as Article 355, which requires the Centre to protect states from external aggression and unrest. Unlike the Foreigners Act, which placed the burden of proving citizenship on the suspect, the IM(DT) Act shifted the responsibility to the state, making enforcement weaker and deportations more complicated.

Since its repeal, Assam has relied on tribunals until last October, when a constitutional bench ruled that the 1950 Act "shall be effectively employed for the purpose of identification of illegal immigrants". The Act authorises the Union government to order the expulsion of individuals or groups whose presence in Assam is deemed harmful to public interest or to the rights of scheduled tribes.

Under the new SOP, cases will only be sent to a tribunal if officials cannot make a prima facie determination. Migrants already declared foreigners by tribunals and who have exhausted all appeals will be deported without additional procedures.

The SOP also requires the SSP to record biometric and demographic details of every suspect in the Foreigners Identification Portal. If a deportation order is ignored, the individual will be detained in a holding centre or handed over to the BSF.