GUWAHATI, Sept. 7 -- The Gauhati high court has directed the Assam government to pay Rs.2 lakh as interim compensation to the husband of Mumtaz Begum, a Bengali-speaking Muslim woman who was pushed into Bangladesh after a foreigners tribunal declared her a foreign national.

This is the first such instance where a court has imposed a cost on the state for pushing a person into Bangladesh, in violation of deportation rules. The order was passed by a bench of justices Kalyan Rai Surana and Susmita Phukan Khaund while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Begum's husband Mujammel Hoque, a resident of Juria in Nagaon district.

"As the detenue (the woman) has been expelled out of India without providing any information to the petitioner (...