Karnataka HC quashes 2 cases against doctor, directs State to set up district-level immigration committees
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has quashed two criminal cases against a Bengaluru-based doctor accused of assaulting a couple over their suspected Bangladeshi nationality, while directing the state government to make district-level committees for dealing with illegal immigration functional within three months.
In its October 16 order, Justice M Nagaprasanna directed the government to constitute the committees in all districts where they are mandated under the Centre’s 2025 Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for detecting, identifying, detaining and deporting illegal immigrants.
The court noted that the SOP provides for a district-level mechanism to verify suspected cases and initiate lawful action. Emphasising the need for implementation, it observed that “a law without implementation is little more than an illusion of governance.”
The bench also stressed that allegations of unauthorised immigration must be addressed “promptly, uniformly and strictly in accordance with law,” adding that neither administrative inaction nor indiscriminate action could be accepted.
The directive was issued while the court was hearing two criminal cases registered against the doctor following an incident on July 22. The woman complainant alleged that the doctor abused her and her husband over their nationality, dragged and assaulted her, repeatedly hit her husband and threatened to kill them if they reported the incident.
However, the court noted that the couple had furnished a permanent address in Bangladesh to the police while claiming to reside in Bengaluru. Material before the court also indicated that they did not possess documents authorising their stay in India and were subsequently dealt with by the authorities as persons residing in the country without lawful permission.
The bench also questioned the circumstances surrounding the registration of the cases. It noted that the police registered the couple’s assault complaint within 15 minutes of acting on the doctor’s complaint alleging illegal immigration. This sequence, it said, cast “a serious shadow over the genesis and bona fides of the prosecution ”, the Indian Express reported.
The court cautioned that the criminal justice system must not become a tool of retaliation against those reporting suspected unlawful activity. “The criminal justice system cannot be allowed to be turned on its head,” it observed while quashing the two cases against the doctor.
