Bilaspur, Jun 19 The Chhattisgarh High Court has cleared the way for the deportation of two Uzbekistan women who had challenged their detention in Raipur, observing nothing remained for adjudication as both the state and the Centre have already proposed to repatriate them to their home country.
A division bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal, in an order delivered on June 16, disposed of a habeas corpus petition filed by the duo, Feruza Sabirova and Dinora Safyutdinova, citizens of Uzbekistan who were accused of illegal stay in India.
A habeas corpus petition is a legal remedy seeking direction to produce a person who is missing or has been illegally detained.
The petitioners had sought their immediate release from detention and requested the court to direct authorities to deport them to Uzbekistan at the earliest.
According to the petition, the two women were taken into custody by the Raipur Police on January 9 this year and had been lodged at the detention centre in Raipur Central Jail since January 14.
Appearing for the petitioners, advocate Shantam Patil submitted that the women had been detained since the last six months without being produced before any court.
He argued that the offences registered against them were compoundable in nature and that no arrest or remand proceedings had initially been undertaken.
Patil informed the court that Sabirova had lost her passport and visa, while Safyutdinova possessed a valid passport but her visa had expired on May 16, 2025. An FIR under provisions of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, was registered against them on March 12 this year, he said.
The counsel further submitted that the women belonged to economically weaker families and had come to India as tourists to visit relatives. They had no criminal antecedents and no criminal or civil cases were pending against them.
Their family members in the Central Asian nation were awaiting their return, while the Uzbekistan Embassy in India was willing to facilitate their deportation, he said.
Chhattisgarh Deputy Advocate General Sourabh Kumar Pande told the court that the petitioners had overstayed in India illegally and an FIR had been registered against them after cognisable offences were found to have been committed.
He said the two women were formally arrested on April 26 and information regarding the police action was provided to their family members, the Embassy of Uzbekistan in New Delhi and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
The petitioners were produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Raipur, on the same day and were subsequently sent to judicial custody at Raipur Central Jail, Pande said, adding their detention could not be termed illegal as they were residing in India without valid travel documents.
Counsel for the Union of India, Rishabh Deo Singh, and Pande informed the court that that the petitioners would be deported to Uzbekistan very soon and as such, nothing survives in this petition for adjudication.
Taking note of these submissions, the HC observed that since both the state and the Union governments proposed to deport the petitioners to their home country, no issue survived for adjudication.
"Since the State as well as the Union of India itself proposes to deport the petitioners to their country, ie Republic of Uzbekistan, nothing survives in this petition for adjudication," the HC said while disposing of the plea.
