SC permits woman declared ‘foreigner’ to seek review in Gauhati High Court
GUWAHATI:
The Supreme Court has allowed a woman declared as a foreigner by the Foreigners Tribunal in Assam, to file a review petition in Gauhati High Court against the judgement which upheld the tribunal’s order.
A bench headed by the Chief Justice of India also permitted the petitioner to approach the Supreme Court again, challenging ‘the main order and the order passed in the review petition,’ in case she fails before the High Court.
The petitioner, Jasmin Begum, was declared a foreigner by a Foreigners’ Tribunal in Morigaon, on January 25, 2019.
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The Tribunal had held that the woman could not trace her ancestry to Indian citizens living in Assam before March 25, 1971 (the cut-off date for eligibility to be included in the National Register of Citizens).
The proceedings against her started on a reference made by the superintendent of police, Morigaon, in 1998.
The Tribunal held that the 11 documents produced by her did not prove her Indian citizenship.
The woman had claimed that her parents’ names were in the voters’ list of 1965 and that she referred to the name Mazeda Begum in the voters’ list of 1965 as her mother’s name.
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But the Tribunal did not act on the voter’s list entry saying that the petitioner, in her oral evidence, cited her mother’s name as ‘Mazeda Sultana Begum’, and not ‘Mazeda Begum.’
The Tribunal also did not accept the school transfer certificate (issued by school head-teacher A Begum, on October 1, 2018) produced by the petitioner saying that the contents of the certificate are not proved by the concerned head-teacher.
The Tribunal held that Jasmin Begum “miserably failed to establish her link with her father and mother” and declared her a “foreigner who entered India after March 25, 1971.”
The Tribunal thereafter said that the “district authority should take necessary steps to deport her to the immediate territory.”
(Edited by Ladiangti Rani)
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