The Supreme Court has agreed to take up on Monday a plea alleging large-scale “overnight” deportations of several persons to Bangladesh by authorities in Assam.

A 26-year-old man had filed a habeas corpus petition seeking production of his mother under alleged illegal detention. A bench of Chief Justice B.R. Gavai, Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice A.S. Chandurkar posted the matter for hearing to June 2, upon a request from senior advocate Shoeb Alam appearing for petitioner Yunus Ali alias Lunuch Ali as he fears that his mother Monowara Bewa, who was picked up by Assam police, may be deported any moment.

Advocate Alam told the bench: “They are just picking people up from the border and deporting them to Bangladesh overnight.” The senior counsel told the bench that the petitioner’s mother was initially summoned to the Dhubri police station for questioning her, but thereafter, her whereabouts are not known.

According to Alam, the petitioner was apprehensive that his mother too, whose whereabouts are not known after May 24, might be deported hence her production before the court.

Bewa was earlier in jail pursuant to a Assam Foreigners Tribunal declaring her an illegal foreigner and directed her deportation. Guwahati High Court had upheld the tribunal’s order, against which she had filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court in 2017, which is pending.

The petitioner has contended that Bewa cannot be deported until the apex court decided her SLP challenging the concurrent findings of the tribunal and the high court.