The Guwahati chapter of the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) will file a case at Gauhati High Court, seeking compensation from the state government for the children of Dilip Biswas, a small-time stall owner from Morigaon district, who along with his family, was declared “foreigner” and lodged in different detention camps since 2010.

Biswas’s two daughters — aged 16 and 11 — were lodged at Kokrajhar detention camp, along with his wife, while he himself was sent to Goalpara detention camp since 2010 until the first week of last month when the high court granted the release of his wife and daughters. Biswas was released in the middle of last month.

Biswas, according to the HRLN, was a victim of a personal vendetta, and even though a reference was made only against him initially in 2006, the tribunal registered a case against three persons — he, his wife and elder daughter.

The HRLN took up the case of Biswas and his family in the high court last year and will file the petition in the next fortnight, said the eldest daughter, who without any fault of hers, has lost her prime years in terms of education. She might face an uncertain future as authorities failed to provide education during her stint at the detention camp along with her mother and sister.

The HRLN activists said the state had violated the rights of the children under Articles 14, 15, 21 (right to liberty) and 21 (A), which upholds the right to education in the Constitution.

“The eldest daughter was studying in class IV when she, along with her parents, was declared ‘foreigners’ and sent to the detention camp. At the detention camp, the authorities failed in their duty in providing education to her. Just because a girl was declared foreigner, should her right to education be taken away? The girl lost precious time during which she could have equipped herself with education and looked forward to a bright future. But her fundamental rights were curtailed by the authorities,” said Debasmita Ghosh, advocate at the HRLN’s Assam chapter.

“The younger daughter, who was not declared a foreigner as the reference case was made against the family before her birth, was given education at the detention camp,” Ghosh added.

“She was almost two years old when she accompanied her mother and eldest sister. The youngest daughter is studying in class VI. She was not declared a foreigner but spent most of the time of her childhood in the detention camp,” Ghosh said.

Biswas, a resident of Murkata village in Morigaon district, used to run a small roadside stall selling tea, roti and ghoogni, until he was declared a foreigner by the foreigners tribunal on February 8 in 2010.

The HRLN said Biswas and his family were victims of a “forged investigation” and personal vendetta, which was also mentioned in the petition.

A reference against Biswas was made to the foreigners tribunal by the superintendent of police (border) on June 16, 2006.