New Delhi, March 22 -- The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the 40-year delay by the Centre and Assam government in deporting illegal Bangladeshi nationals after it was informed that pursuant to an order passed last month, 13 out of 270 alleged foreigners in an Assam detention camp have been identified and handed over to Bangladesh.

A bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said, "The Assam Accord was signed in August 1985 (almost 40 years ago). Why have you not deported them so far. People (in the state) are agitated. Why don't you deport them?" The Assam Accord was signed between Union government, the Assam government, All Assam Students Union and Assam Gana Sangram Parishad and fixed a cut-off date of March 25,1971, beyond wh...