Field Notes: The Refugee Who Wanted To Appear In Court Just To Breathe The Air Outside
SYED AFFAN
For over three and a half years, Hassan Hassan had not seen the world beyond the walls of the district jail in Araria prison in the northeastern part of Bihar.
His physical appearance in the sessions court, where the criminal proceedings for crossing from Nepal to India against the 33-year-old UN-recognised refugee had been going on since 2018, had stopped after the Patna High Court in June 2021 ordered that he be deported back to his sister in Nepal.
We reported on 16 April 2025 that despite two orders for release by the high court, the first one in January 2019, Hassan was never deported due to judicial negligence and administrative apathy.
Since there were no more legal proceedings against him and he had already served most of the maximum sentence for his crimes as an undertrial, Hassan’s worst fear was that he would be moved from jail to a detention facility, where he would be in legal limbo.
On 16 October 2022, Hassan’s United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card, which granted him refugee status, expired, further blocking any potential coordination between Nepal, the UNHCR and the local administration.
On 26 March 2025, Hassan was shifted to a detention centre for male foreigners in Purnea, a district neighbouring Araria. Rameez Reza, his pro bono lawyer, told me they only learned about the move in early April.
Reza said authorities at the detention centre refused to let him meet Hassan without written permission from the district magistrate of Araria.
When I spoke with him on 4 March, Hassan was scheduled to appear in the sessions court via video. He asked the judge why he was being asked to appear and why his appearances were recorded if there were no legal proceedings.
The proceedings were halted at the stage of framing charges for the crime of cheating and crossing over illegally.
Hassan also asked the judge about his prolonged imprisonment and the high court’s unexecuted order.
Hassan said the judge told him the administration would carry out the high court order, and his court was checking up on him despite no legal proceedings.
“I told the judge that I feel suffocated, and if I'm physically produced, I'll at least breathe some air and be able to bear the circumstances”, Hassan said.
However, the judge said that there was no need for him to be produced since there were no legal proceedings against him.
Hassan said he met the current district magistrate, Anil Kumar, once in November 2024 during his regular visit. The district magistrate asked him to write an application about the two high court orders that had not been executed.
Hassan said the district magistrate told him that since the maximum sentences for the crimes he had been accused of were ending, even though there were no legal proceedings, they couldn’t keep him in jail, but said nothing when he asked him about the high court orders.
To expedite his release, Hassan also applied to the sessions court to plead guilty to entering the country illegally, as he had served close to the maximum sentence applicable. However, the court declined to record his plea, stating that no legal proceedings were ongoing.
Hassan said he wrote a letter to the district magistrate, but the jail authorities never sent it. Instead, they sent another letter to the district legal services seeking directions to shift him to a detention centre if his deportation couldn't be facilitated.
“I have written several applications (to the DM, court authorities, courts) but to no avail,” Hassan said.
Hassan said he felt helpless without any legal recourse.
“In jail, I have been hopeful that I'll be released sooner or later. But in detention, you’re indefinitely stuck with the same people, with no hope, near or far, facing the brunt of the political environment,” Hassan said.
“Twice, the high court ruled in my favour. In 2019, the high court ordered my release within two weeks. When that was ignored, the court again ordered my release and handover to my sister in 2021,” he said. “There's a clear disregard for my case.”
Despite the administration’s failure to execute the order and the sessions court halting his criminal proceedings, neither the court nor the administration approached the high court,” said Hassan.
“They didn’t seek directions and kept delaying things deliberately. Now they’re preparing to send me to the detention centre in Purnea,” he told me, three weeks before he was shifted.
When I spoke with the district magistrate for my report in the first week of March, the magistrate said they had sought directions from the inspector general of prisons, Bihar, to shift him to a detention centre. Additionally, he said that a previous district magistrate had forwarded the matter to the ministry of home affairs, which referred it to the immigration department in the ministry of external affairs.
The district magistrate said that the response was still awaited.
"I'm bearing the brunt of the mistakes of the court and administration", said Hassan. “If I've to be in jail or a detention centre despite two high court orders, then the justice system is a joke”.
Read Syed Affan’s full story here.
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