SC raps Assam govt over lack of facilities in detention centres

Garima Tyagi

New Delhi [India], Oct 31 (ANI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Assam government to apprise it about the timeline by when necessary facilities like gas, medical facilities can be provided in detention centers.

A bench comprising Justice Madan B Lokur, Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta, while taking into consideration that detention centers lack basic facilities, told the Assam government that planning should have been done in advance before putting people in the detention center.

"You (government) can't put a person in a detention center and say you will decide later what is to be done about them. It must have been planned out in advance. You are detaining people against their wish, you must provide them with certain basic facilities," observed the bench.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Assam government, apprised the court that tender has been floated for new detention homes in the state.

The top court, while posting the matter for hearing on November 2, asked Mehta to give details about floating a tender for the construction of detention centers, medical facilities and cocking gas facilities in detention centers.

The apex court also asked the state government to give a timeline by when family members of foreign nationals who have been put in different detention centers in the state can be united. "47 persons to be united with families. You know the persons, you just have to unite them," it added.

It also asked the state government that how much time it would take to transfer families to the same detention center.

Earlier, the top court had questioned government's move of putting families in different detention centers and asked Assam government to deal with the issue on an urgent basis so that "families are not broken up".

"You cannot separate them from their families like this," the bench had said while hearing the plea relating to the condition of the detention center in Assam.