SC Stresses Fairness in Assam Citizenship Cases

• Supreme Court says citizenship determination must follow a fair legal process.
• Sets aside Gauhati High Court and Foreigners Tribunal orders against 27 people.
• No coercive action until fresh hearings are completed.
• Court says minor spelling errors alone cannot override judicial fairness.

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 13th July: The Supreme Court on Monday underscored that the process of determining citizenship or declaring an individual a foreigner must be fair, while setting aside orders of the Gauhati High Court and Foreigners Tribunals that had declared 27 people in Assam as foreigners.

A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta ruled that citizenship and foreigner status involve issues of “high constitutional and legal significance” and cannot be decided without ensuring judicial fairness.

While acknowledging that the government has a legitimate interest in preventing illegal claims to Indian citizenship, the court observed that such concerns cannot override the principles of due process and fair adjudication.

The apex court directed that no coercive action be taken against the 27 individuals until fresh hearings are conducted by the concerned Foreigners Tribunals.

Among the petitioners were Sabitri Dey, Ajbahar Ali, Md Akbar Ali, Abeda Khatun and Anowara Khatun, who argued that they had been declared foreigners on technical grounds, including spelling mistakes, typographical errors and minor discrepancies in names appearing in old electoral rolls and official records.

The court clarified that it had not examined the evidence to determine whether the petitioners were Indian citizens. Instead, it held that the cases required reconsideration through a fair hearing before the tribunals.

The petitioners had relied on historical documents such as pre-1971 legacy records, voter lists and land documents to establish their citizenship and had challenged the tribunal rulings before the Gauhati High Court and subsequently the Supreme Court.

The judgment follows a similar order passed by the apex court in June, when it stayed the deportation of five women who had also been declared foreigners by tribunals in Assam. In that case, the court granted interim protection after the petitioners argued that discrepancies in the spelling of their names had adversely affected their citizenship claims.

Legal experts believe the latest ruling could have a wider impact on the manner in which Assam’s Foreigners Tribunals evaluate citizenship cases, particularly those involving minor documentary inconsistencies.