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GUWAHATI: In Assam, many people who were declared foreigners by tribunals have faced tough times in detention camps. However, several of them later proved they were Indian citizens, either in courts or by appealing to the Foreigners Tribunal (FT).
A common issue, as shared by a senior advocate of the Gauhati High Court, is that many individuals accused of being illegal foreigners don't get information about their hearing dates. As a result, they miss these hearings and are declared illegal foreigners by the tribunals.
One such case is of Ahalya Rani Das from the Katigorah area in Cachar district. In 2018, Tribunal No. 4 of Silchar declared her a foreigner without her presence. She contested this in the High Court. The High Court, with Justices Manas Ranjan Pathak and Partha Jyoti Saikia, passed an interim order. They stated Ahalya couldn't be arrested or sent to a detention camp but must meet with the Superintendent of Police (Border), Cachar, for biometric information.
Similarly, Nirpen Das from Dudhnai in the Goalpara district faced a declaration as a foreigner in 2022 by Tribunal No. 4 of Goalpara. Challenging this, he approached the High Court. The court ruled he couldn't be arrested or detained but had to provide his biometric details to the SP (Border) of Goalpara.
In another case, seven members of a family from Jagiroad in the Morigaon district were declared foreigners. This family included Raychand Das, Suprabha Das, Ramjoy Das, Sanjay Das, Gopindra Das, Sanjit Das, and Biswajit Das. They challenged this in the High Court. Raychand Das, who had passed away, had claimed he came to India in 1964 from then East Pakistan due to religious persecution. He had provided evidence, including the 1971 voter list with his name. However, the tribunal found issues in proving his family's linkage and declared them all as foreigners. The High Court justices Lanusungkum Zamir and Budi Habung asked for a full investigation and sent the case back to the FT for review.
