Photo Courtesy: nenow
Guwahati: The Supreme Court ordered a clean slate for 27 Assam residents previously declared foreigners. On July 13, Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta tossed out Gauhati High Court rulings that had upheld those declarations. The bench remanded all 27 cases back to their respective Foreigners Tribunals for new, independent adjudications.
The court insisted that citizenship status carries immense weight. Authorities cannot cut corners. The bench noted, "The determination of such status must be made through a process which is fair, lawful and reasonable." While the state has a clear interest in preventing false citizenship claims, the court maintained that procedural safeguards remain mandatory under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946.
The justices steered clear of the individual merits of the cases. They did not verify documents or decide if the appellants were rightfully Indian citizens. Those questions stay with the tribunals. This legal reset provides no equity or automatic benefits to the appellants. It simply forces the government to follow the Foreigners Act, 1946, the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, and basic constitutional fairness.
Appellants in this batch included Sabitri Dey, Ajbahar Ali, Md Akbar Ali, Abeda Khatun, and Anowara Khatun. They had argued that tribunals declared them foreigners based on trivial issues. Spelling errors and typographical mistakes in old electoral rolls formed the core of their grievances. Tribunals across Assam previously ruled against them, and the Gauhati High Court backed those findings before the Supreme Court intervened.
Political reaction was sharp. Akhil Gogoi, Raijor Dal founder and Sibsagar MLA, cheered the decision. He called the ruling a "big slap on the Chief Minister's face." Gogoi accused the Assam government of pressuring tribunals to push through foreigner declarations and criticized Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for suggesting that officials could detain people as doubtful citizens without judicial oversight.
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