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The Assam judicial department has said that it is not necessary for members of the Foreigners Tribunals (FT) to pass “consequential directions/orders” while rendering opinion, reports Times of India.
The views of the judicial department were sent to FT members by the state home department for compliance.
The communication was sent after it was found that members of the FTs passed opinions in “randomly selected samples” while carrying out performance assessment exercise.
FTs, which are quasi-judicial in nature and are unique to Assam, decide the fate of people suspected to be illegal immigrants. Foreigners’ Order, 1964, empowers FTs to only opine whether a person is a foreigner or an Indian citizen.
Those who are suspected to be illegal immigrants according to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise need to appear in front of FTs to appeal their exclusion from the list.
“In the performance assessment exercise carried out by the state judicial department on the basis of randomly selected samples of opinions rendered by members of foreigners tribunals, the judicial department has viewed with seriousness the passing of consequential directions/orders by members while rendering opinion,” Assam deputy secretary of political department Parijat Bhuyan said.
Bhuyan in a communication dated September 4 — with the subject “Consequential orders” — requested FT members to adhere to the views of the judicial department while passing opinions.
Bhuyan also mentioned that “noted that consequential order for deletion of names from voter list, arrest and detention of the declared foreigners, passed. This may not be necessary”. The judicial department also expressed that “noted that consequential order for deportation etc. of the declared foreigners, passed. This may not be the correct approach.”
There have been several instances in which an FT’s ruling has overturned by the Gauhati High Court.
Earlier, it had also been reported that the Aadhaar enrolment of 27.43 lakh people has been on hold, as their biometric details collected before the publication of the draft continue to be frozen due to the current uncertainty surrounding the NRC exercise.
Fingerprints, retina scan and other details were also collected during the hearing of claims for the excluded people to be included in the NRC.
Around eight lakh people who provided their biometrics, and also made it to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on August 31, 2019, are struggling to get Aadhaar, and worry about benefits linked to it. In all, 27 lakh people had registered their biometrics, but 19 lakh of these did not find their names in the NRC.
The families of two freedom fighters – Sachindra Nath Bhattacharjee and Kameshwar Bordoloi – were also excluded from the NRC.
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