Foreigners Act born in fear, not foresight

The Immigration and Foreigners Act 2025 replaces due process with sweeping discretion, the Constitution with control, and compassion with contempt

- Abhishek Singhvi

In the name of national security, the government has unveiled a legislative monster masquerading as reform — the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025. It is less a law and more a licence to harass, detain, and/or deport, without rhyme, reason or remedy. Cloaked in the rhetoric of sovereignty and surveillance, it stands as a cynical monument to paranoia, suspicion, and State overreach.

Firstly, this Act is not about managing immigration; it is about institutionalising unchecked authority and normalising Kafkaesque imagery and Orwellian control. It grants the government a blank cheque to define, detain, and deport anyone they deem inconvenient. The phrase "such other grounds as the Central Government may specify" in Section 3 is deliberately vague so that with a flick of the bureaucratic wrist, any foreigner can be cast out with no questions asked. The devil here is not in the details — it is in the design.

Secondly, George Orwell would blush at the second proviso of Section 3, which makes the immigration officer's decision "final and binding." One man's suspicion thus becomes another man's deportation order. No appeals. No hearings. No oversight. Just an omnipotent desk officer playing judge, jury and executioner. In the US, an immigration judge, and in Canada, an appeal board, exist. India now has a constable with a clipboard with no review board, no ombudsman, no appellate mechanism. Justice is not delayed here — it is denied by design.

Thirdly, this Act creates ouster clauses designed to minimise judicial oversight. Wearing down a foreigner with paperwork, prison and purposeless procedure, with justice a mirage, this is less law and more a dystopian dance of executive fiat.