The Assam Government, in an effort to address the shortcomings identified by the Gauhati High Court and to avoid wrong detection of Indian citizens as foreigners, is mulling to commence a crash course for members of its Foreigners’ Tribunals.
These tribunals are specialized quasi-judicial bodies tasked with detecting the citizenship status of individuals suspected of being illegal immigrants within Assam.
The judicial intervention by the Gauhati High Court came after it came to fore that a substantial number of individuals previously declared as foreigners were later found to be Indian citizens.
The court’s order, issued on December 3, highlighted concerns regarding the accuracy of the tribunal’s decisions and the processes followed in reaching them.
It was highlighted that in approximately 85 per cent of cases reviewed, the individuals involved were eventually recognized as citizens, casting doubt on the initial judgments of the tribunals.
A specific case that brought attention to the issue involved Bongaigaon’s Forhad Ali, who was declared a foreigner due to discrepancies in his father’s name across various documents.
The High Court underlined that minor inconsistencies in names should not be the sole criterion for such a serious determination as one’s nationality. The court made compulsory a thorough re-examination of Ali’s records, including voter lists, before making a final decision.
In response to these facts, the High Court has instructed the Assam Home Department to hold a comprehensive review of all orders passed by the Foreigners’ Tribunals.
The Assam Home and Political department are mulling a crash course for the FT members at the National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam (NLUJAA), in Guwahati for which a meeting is expected to take place later this week, said insiders.
Currently, the Home department has a gigantic task of scrutinizing around 97,000 pending FT cases, mainly those lacking adequate justification or analysis of evidence, and take appropriate measures where necessary.
Moreover, the review outcomes will be made public, ensuring transparency and informing the residents of Assam about the issue of illegal immigration.
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