Soni Satti
The Guwahati High Court has overturned a Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT) order declaring a man a foreigner for failing to establish linkage with all relatives in pre-1971 voter lists.
The cut -off date for detecting and deporting foreigners in the Assam Accord of 1985 mentions that it is crucial to establish a lineage from people who lived or lived in India before March 24, 1971, for attaining inclusion in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) list which was revised in August 2019.
Due to a lack of providing documentation in proving their citizenship, approximately 19.06 lakh of the 3.3 crore applicants were removed from the list.
On January 30, Haider Ali, a resident of Kawaimari Block 12 village failed to build his linkage with five people other than his grandfather Nadu Miya and grandmother Aymona, whose names appeared in the 1970 voters’ list. As a result, The FT-III of western Assam’s Barpeta named him a foreigner.
On 15th March, Justice N. Kotiswar Singh heard Haider Ali’s case and noted that the petitioner’s argument would have been stronger if he had given a more detailed family tree.
He further contended that, “…but failure to disclose the names of all the members of the family cannot weaken his case and render his evidence unreliable, nor reduce the credibility of his evidence when there is other corroborating evidence,”
The court noted that Haider Ali had documents showing that he was the son of Harmuz Ali and the grandson of Nadu Miya, both of whom were admittedly Indians. Quashing the Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT) order the Court directed the removal of Haider Ali’s foreigner tag.
The High Court in its order stated, “Thus, non-explanation of relationship of the petitioner with other persons mentioned in the voters’ list of 1970 cannot be a ground for disbelieving the correctness of the entry of names of the grandparents in the voters’ list when the correctness of the entry of the names of the petitioner’s father and grandfather was not questioned,”