The Supreme Court on Thursday questioned the Union and Bengal governments about the delay in deporting declared illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, saying this posed security problems and that such leniency would perhaps not be tolerated in any other country.

“Tell us, how many correctional homes are you going to keep in the country to house them? For how long are you going to put these people in the correctional homes?” Justice J.B. Pardiwala asked additional solicitor-general Aishwarya Bhati, who was appearing for the Centre. “Illegal immigrants detained in prisons are maintained, provided shelter and medical aid…. If they were in any other country, they would have probably lost their lives.”

The bench reserved its verdict on a 2013 petition that flagged the plight of hundreds of Bangladeshi immigrants who continued to be detained in Bengal’s prisons even after having served their sentences for illegal entry into India.

Maja Daruwala, head of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, an NGO, had in 2011 written to the then chief justice of Calcutta High Court about these illegal immigrants’ situation. Daruwala’s plea was later transferred to the Supreme Court since it was already dealing with illegal immigrants in other states.

On Tuesday, the concluding day of the hearing, the Bengal government’s counsel said that deportation was being delayed as it required proper verification and confirmation of the immigrants’ identity by the Bangladesh government.

An unimpressed Justice Pardiwala wondered: “When an immigrant is apprehended, put to trial and is convicted and is held guilty under the Foreigners Act… what is the idea in asking the neighbouring country to tell this country about his nationality?”

Bhati told the bench, which included Justice R. Mahadevan, that the country’s porous borders made matters like deportation complicated, but the government was doing its best to speed up the process.

This prompted the bench to observe: “It also has security issues….”

Advocate Vrinda Grover, representing the NGO, argued that prolonged incarceration of illegal immigrants who had served their sentences violated their fundamental rights under Article 21 (right to life and liberty).

She underlined how another bench of the Supreme Court had directed the Assam government to put up such declared illegal immigrants in shelter homes.

At the earlier hearing, the bench had noted that even a plain reading of Clause 2(v) of the Foreigners Act suggested that the entire exercise related to deportation — including verification and other procedures — was to be completed within 30 days.

“We want to know why this Clause 2(v) is not being strictly complied with,” it had observed.

According to Bengal government records, as of February 1, 2011, of the 858 Bangladeshis who had been imprisoned, some 495 (421 men and 74 women) had been released on completion of their sentences and were awaiting repatriation.