'Fair process must for citizenship determination'; Relief for 27 declared foreigners in Assam

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court said it was imperative to follow fair procedure before determining citizenship and declaring a person a foreigner. The Supreme Court's observation comes after tribunals in Assam declared 27 people as foreigners. The court also clarified that citizenship and the status of a foreigner are of great constitutional and legal importance.

State governments need to prevent those people from using fraudulent means to obtain citizenship through forged documents or false claims. However, it doesn’t allow the government to show bias or flout rules in the treatment of such people. The Supreme Court set aside the judgments of the Guwahati High Court and the tribunals in the case. The court also directed that no coercive action be taken against the 27 people labelled as foreigners until the tribunals hear the case next.

The Supreme Court's observation was made on a petition filed by Sabitri De, Ajbahar Ali, Mid Akbar Ali, Abeda Khatun and Anwar Khatun. The petition states that they were declared foreigners due to typographical errors in their names in the old voter list. The court also said that the evidence regarding the citizenship of the petitioners was not examined. The petitioners had produced pre-1971 ancestry documents, voter lists and land records to prove their Indian citizenship.