Gauhati High Court :

Assam in a State less  Dilema

Since 2019 Foreigner Tribunals in Assam have declared 63,959 persons foreigners in ex-parte proceedings.

The Gauhati High Court last week set aside an ex-parte order by a Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT) declaring a Cachar district resident and his family members as “foreigners” and said that the petitioners should be given another opportunity to prove they are Indians.

A Foreigner’s Tribunal in Cachar (assam) declared Rajendra Das and four of his family members as “foreigners” after they failed to appear before it following summons the previous year.

During Hearing a writ petition, a High Court Bench of Justices N Kotiswar Singh and Malasri Nandi deliberated that Rajendra Das and four of his family members should be given an opportunity to prove themselves Indians ”.

The judges said that if the petitioners were able to prove the authenticity of the documents presented before the court, they “may have a legitimate claim that they are Indians and not foreigners”. The petitioner had submitted to the Court voters’ lists of 1965 and 1970, in which the names of Das’ parents were mentioned, and a marriage certificate of Das and his wife Renubala issued by the Mahadevpur gaon panchayat in Cachar.

.

The FACT- Das, his wife Renubala and three minor children were declared foreigners by an ex-parte order (in the absence of these persons) in April 2018 by the 4^th FT at Cachar.

At the time, the tribunal said that Das did not appear for the proceedings nor did he file a written statement after seeking time. Das’ counsel previously said he could not attend the hearing because of ill health.

Routine Interference with Ex-part-Order is not expected but where the basic right of Citizenship is envisaged is an Exception .

The Tribunal is Quasi-Judicial in Nature but it is more relying on the fallacy of being absent to prove the case rather it should more rely upon on evidence of citizenship rather than the opportunity of absence of the Common people.

Citizenship is above all rights enshrined in our Constituion thus it should be of prime importance that the Statelessnes should not be proved just on the basi of Absence of a y person or his family member in a State like Assam

The verdict was welcomed by activists. and Human rights lawyer Aman Wadud . He deliberated that said the verdict was “exactly how a constitutional court should protect the most important right of a citizen”.

“Assam is staring at a major statelessness crisis, I am glad that the High Court has acknowledged the risk of statelessness of the petitioners in the case,” he said, adding that he hoped that FTs across Assam would follow the observations of the court.

Dillema of Statelessness -Best described by Wadud said the order was significant because many people in Assam were declared “foreigners” by ex-parte because of non-delivery of notices or they fail to appear before the tribunal due to ill health and financial problems. “This is a major obstacle in getting access to justice,” he said.

The HC asked the petitioners to reappear before the same tribunal on or before December 24, 2021.