- India
- Jul 15
SC lays down procedural safeguard in citizenship cases
• The Supreme Court set aside the Gauhati High Court verdicts which affirmed the orders declaring some persons to be foreigners.
• The bench remitted the matters to the Foreigners Tribunals concerned for fresh adjudication in accordance with law.
• The concerned tribunals shall decide the references afresh, uninfluenced by any observation made either by the High Court in the impugned judgments or by the tribunals in the earlier opinions, it ruled.
What is the case about?
• The Supreme Court delivered its verdict on a batch of appeals arising out of proceedings before the Foreigners Tribunals in Assam.
• In some matters, the proceedings took place before the erstwhile Illegal Migrants (Determination) Tribunals.
• The appellants have been declared to be foreigners and the said opinions have been affirmed by the High Court of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh at Guwahati.
• The common grievance of the appellants is that the opinions against them were rendered in proceedings which were either ‘ex parte’ or had become effectively ‘ex parte’, and that the statutory determination of their status was made without a full and meaningful opportunity to contest the reference.
• ‘Ex parte’ means a legal procedure in which only one side is heard or represented.
Highlights of the SC verdict:
• The bench said the protection of equality before law, equal protection of laws, life and personal liberty is available to every person within the territory of India.
• Citizenship and foreigner status occupy a field of high constitutional and legal significance.
• Article 11 of the Constitution preserves the power of Parliament to make provisions with respect to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship.
• Separately, the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964 provide the statutory mechanism through which questions as to whether a person is or is not a foreigner are referred to and determined by the Tribunal.
• The State has a legitimate and compelling interest in ensuring that persons who are not legally entitled to claim Indian citizenship do not secure such status by misuse of process, by false claims, or by taking advantage of procedural delays.
• At the same time, the determination of such status must be made through a process which is fair, lawful and reasoned.
• A person proceeding before a Foreigners Tribunal may ultimately fail to establish Indian citizenship, but the process by which such determination is made must still satisfy the constitutional requirements of fairness, reasonableness and non-arbitrariness, it said.