[Foreigners Tribunals] Mere doubt about documents not ground to declare citizens foreigners: Gauhati High Court

The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday took strong exception to the manner in which Foreigners Tribunals set up in Assam were functioning, particularly when it came to declaring citizens as foreigners on the basis of mere doubts about veracity of documents produced by individuals [Farida Begum vs. Union of India and ors.].A Bench of Justices N Kotiswar Singh and Malasri Nandi emphasised that such cases concerning citizenship cannot be treated as criminal cases and State cannot tag citizens as foreigners only on the ground that there are doubts about documents produced by individuals. "These are not criminal cases, they defend [their citizenship claims] on preponderance of probability," Justice Singh orally remarked during the hearing, adding that it is the onus of the State to determine the veracity of the supporting documents towards citizenship instead of proceeding with tagging them foreigner on its basis."We are fed up with such enquiries being held ...where they have produced documents, doubts with the same cannot be basis for declaring foreigner," he said..The High Court said that it is being overburdened by such cases due to the Foreigners Tribunals and government not doing its job properly in such matters..The Court was hearing an appeal against an order of a Foreigner Tribunal declaring a woman foreigner. The respondent authorities pointed out that the petitioner's school records showed her alleged pet name and not the name on the voter rolls.The Court was, however, not impressed stating that it should not be a ground to straight away declare an individual a foreigner especially since other documents in this case showed that the petitioner was connected to other Indian citizens. While the strong oral remarks at the last hearing did not make their way to the order pronounced (uploaded on Friday), the Bench noted that she was not subject to cross-examination by the tribunal regarding the school certificate, and observed that otherwise, " ... on the basis of the voters lists referred to above, the petitioner has been able to discharge her burden of proof on the basis of preponderance of probability that she is an Indian citizen and not a foreigner."On such citizenship cases, the Court stated that " ... it is well-settled that if a proceedee is able to establish his/her link with his/her parents, who have been undisputably living in Assam prior to 1966, it would be sufficient to discharge the burden cast upon the proceedee that he/she is an Indian and not a foreigner." .The two-judge Bench, which frequently hears such cases, had in November last year said Foreigners' Tribunals cannot hear proceedings against a person for the second time. In December, the Bench emphasised the importance of citizenship while setting aside an order which declared the petitioners foreigners without hearing them. .[Read order]