[Citizenship case] Pendency of brother's plea not ground for review: Gauhati High Court rejects plea of man declared foreigner

The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday dismissed a review petition filed by a man declared foreigner by a Foreigners Tribunal, observing that pendency of his brother's citizenship-related petition before the High Court cannot be a ground for review [Fariz @Farij Ali @ Farijul Hoque @ Farijal Hoque vs Union of India and ors]..A Bench of Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Soumitra Saikia reiterated that a review is permissible only for correction of errors apparent on the face of record or for the ends of justice, which was not the case here. "It appears that the petitioner has sought for a fresh hearing of the matter in the guise of a review ... The only ground projected is that a writ petition preferred by his elder brother is still pending disposal before this Court and the same cannot be considered to be ground to review an order passed in WP(C) No. 3959/2020 when it was filed by the petitioner alone and there being no averment in respect of his brother in the said writ petition," the Bench observed. .The petitioner, who had migrated to Assam after 1971, was declared a foreigner in 2019 by the Foreigners Tribunal.The same was challenged before the Gauhati High Court by way of a writ petition which came to be dismissed on October 2020.The present review petition was file challenging that order.He took the claim that his brother's writ petition in a similar case is pending before the High Court, having been admitted in February last year.The petitioner in the first case before the High Court had contended that the Tribunal had erred in not considering the electoral rolls and village elder certificate submitted in support of his citizenship claim. The Bench in the instant case noted at the outset that there was an averment in the review petition that it has been preferred because the petitioner was apprehending arrest in view of dismissal of the writ petition.The other argument made was that the name of the elder brother had appeared in the voter list of 1971 (the cut-off date for Assam residents claiming Indian citizenship), and this aspect was not considered by the Court in its earlier order dismissing the Tribunal's findings. .The Bench noted that there was no mention of the grounds now urged in when the writ petition was heard. The genealogy chart part of pleadings also did not state the name or pending case status of his brother. It relied on the Supreme Court decision in Sow Chandra Kante and Another Vs Sheikh Habib to hold that the present review petition has no merit as there was no error apparent nor was any pointed out by the petitioner.The plea was, therefore, dismissed. .Advocate S Islam appeared for the petitioner. The respondents were represented by advocates L Devi, A Bhuyan, A Kalita, and U Das.[Read Judgment].Foreigners Tribunals orders can seal fate of citizenship, must be given after analysing evidence: Gauhati High Court.[Foreigners Tribunals] Mere doubt about documents not ground to declare citizens foreigners: Gauhati High Court