The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by activist Harsh Mander.
The senior-most bureaucrat in the Assam government was pulled up the Supreme Court today in a case relating to detention of foreigners who have illegally entered the country. The top court questioned the absence of the Chief Secretary for the hearing and asked him to appear before it on April 8.
The Supreme Court termed the affidavit filed by the Assam government as an "exercise in futility" and wanted to know as to how many persons, who have been declared foreigners by the foreigners tribunal, have amalgamated with the local population.
"The Chief Secretary will go back to the state only if we permit him," a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.
The Assam government said around 70,000 illegal foreigners merged with the state population in the last 10 years. The state government also said it has a proposal to set up a panel that will examine the idea of tagging of radio frequency chip to illegal foreigners.
"What have you been doing for the last 10 years? Your figures are wrong," the top court said.
The top court was hearing a petition filed by activist Harsh Mander on the condition of foreigners in detention centres. The petitioner alleges that they were kept in detention indefinitely just because they were not Indians and were treated as "illegal aliens".
The court had, in the past, expressed concern over thousands of illegal migrants being kept in detention centres for years in Assam without being repatriated or deported to their countries of origin. It had raised several issues connected with the detention centres and said the detainees could not be held for an indefinite period.
(With inputs from PTI)