The Centre has told the Supreme Court that no timeline could be fixed regarding detention of “foreigners” at camps in Assam.

The Centre said this at a hearing of a petition on Wednesday filed by human rights activist Harsh Mander against the Union of India, questioning the legal validity of Assam’s detention centres wherein scores of people have been detained for an “indefinite period”.

The Centre argued that “nationality verification is a sovereign function of the country concerned and, therefore, no specific timeline can be prescribed for completing nationality verification and issuing of travel document by the country concerned”.

The Centre invoked sections of Foreigners Act, 1946, implying that a foreigner shall comply with such conditions which require a person to reside in a particular place.

Assam has six detention camps that house around 1,000 detainees. According to human rights activists, including Mander, the condition of these camps is abysmal. In July this year, the Centre had sanctioned the construction of a detention centre in Goalpara district over one year. It would accommodate 3,000 inmates.

Mander, former National Human Rights Commission monitor for minorities who co-authored a report on Assam’s detention centres early this year, said the Centre’s response over detention timeline “reeked of much brazenness”. “It was a heated kind of hearing. Ultimately, the government of India made it very clear that it will continue to detain people as long it can. It made it clear that there shouldn’t be any time limit and it didn’t give a clear plan in dealing with families who have been separated,” he said.

Mander is seeking enforcement of fundamental rights under Articles 14 and 12 of the Constitution for the detainees.

In a PIL filed in September, Mander had mentioned that keeping people detained for years on suspicion of being a foreigner was not only illegal but a violation of human rights and against international law. He had sought response from both the central and state governments over indefinite detention of people and separation of families.

The bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta also asked the state government about details of the tender floated for construction of the detention centre in Goalpara for Rs 47 crore and the time of its construction.

“The apex court also asked Dispur how much time it would require to reunite families separated at the detention centres. The court specifically said there was no need to break up families. It also asked about the steps taken to provide high-pressure gas pipeline and medical facilities at the centres,” Mander said.