The SP then sends the Select Committee’s report to the Government, having discussed the issue with the SDO. The state government then orders the Lower Tribunal (the IMDT court at the district level) to begin proceedings. Only then is the case registered, notices issued to the accused to respond to the charges and a date fixed for hearings. Case hearings take place and eventually there is a judgement. If there is an appeal against the ruling, the petitioner will go to the Appellate Court at Guwahati, which functioned for many years under a former High Court judge from Rajasthan, Justice S.N. Bhargava.

This entire process can take several years and one must emphasize here that the structure of the IMDT makes the involvement of the local police, already overburdened with law and order problems of the day, including armed insurrection and communal strife, mandatory. How can an overloaded and understaffed police force do justice to either? Without fail, the IMDT cases get postponed because the investigating officer has little time to follow up and conduct the necessary interviews. He is too busy dealing with day-to-day emergencies.

The problem gets even more complex when documents are used to buttress a claim by the accused. Under the discovery proceedings that are mandatory under the Indian Evidence Act, every document provided by one party can be examined and verified by experts from the other side. Delays, already endemic in the Indian judicial system, become even more protracted and pronounced.

But this is not the end of the IMDT procedure. There’s more in store for those brave enough to fight it out to the bitter end:

Once the Appellate Court has completed its hearing and passed judgement, the accused may go and appeal to the High Court of the state under Article 226 of the Constitution. And finally, the Court may, in its wisdom, send it all back to the Appellate Court for a revised opinion.

The procedure could last years, if not decades.

What are the other laws under which a foreigner, Bangladeshi or otherwise, can be detected?

The main legislation used to locate and evict foreign nationals living in India without formal permission or those who have overstayed their official welcome is the Foreigners Act of 1946. The crucial section of the Foreigners Act is Clause 3, which grants sole authority to the police to detect and deport foreigners.