‘Not fair’: Karnataka High Court pulls up Bengal over review of Rafikul Biswas’ citizenship

3 min readBengaluruUpdated: Jul 14, 2026 10:37 AM IST

Justice Suraj Govindaraj of Karnataka High Court took strong exception to the submission made by the West Bengal government and orally said, “How many times do you need time? Not fair".

The Karnataka High Court on Monday slammed the West Bengal government for seeking more time to review the documents proving the citizenship of a school driver who was detained in Bengaluru last year on the suspicion of being a Bangladeshi national living illegally in India.

Although the petitioner, Rafikul Biswas, 32, a resident of West Bengal’s Nadia district, has official records stating that he is an Indian citizen by birth and has also been issued a fresh voter ID card after completing the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, counsel for the West Bengal government has been seeking time since June to obtain fresh instructions in the case.

Justice Suraj Govindaraj took strong exception to the submission made by the West Bengal government and orally said, “How many times do you need time? Not fair. You are wasting the court’s time and everybody’s time.”

Enquiries conducted by the Superintendent of Police, Krishnagar Police District, Nadia, and Block Development Officer, Nadia, in October 2025, have stated that Biswas is an Indian citizen.

‘This is extremely dangerous’

“Can my citizenship depend on vagaries of who is in power in a particular state? This is extremely dangerous,” counsel for Rafikul Biswas asked the Karnataka High Court on Monday, after the West Bengal Government’s counsel sought two weeks for further instructions from the authorities.

Advocate Clifton D Rozario appearing for Biswas pointed out that the West Bengal Government had already filed a report based on inquiries conducted by two different agencies of the state and those documents are on record.

Advocate  Mahendra Gowda C R said, “I have only instructions that new authorities want to review the document submitted before the court. I am not saying that I will be filing a contradictory report or something.”

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Advocate Rozario also informed the court that Biswas has cleared the SIR revision process and a new election ID has been issued to him and his family.

Deputy Solicitor General Shanthi Bhushan appearing for Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), which had passed the detention order, orally submitted that if Biswas has got the voter ID card after the intense SIR process, then nothing remains in the issue.

The court then directed all the parties to file the necessary documents and said it would hear the matter on July 23 and no adjournments would be granted to anyone on that date.

Biswas, who worked as a school bus driver and scrap dealer, was detained by the Bengaluru police in September last year on allegations that he was a Bangladeshi national. The police showed a birth certificate and an identity document with Biswas’s photograph, identifying him as Bangladeshi.

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Days into his detention, Biswas was hospitalised following a heart attack. On December 19, he suffered from another cardiac episode, and was released on medical grounds.

Biswas had approached the High Court in September seeking to quash the detention order passed by the FRRO and direct the respondents to release the petitioner from detention forthwith.