Startling Revelation: 63,959 declared ‘Foreigners’ in Assam in ‘ex-parte proceedings,’ informs MHA

July 2: The upgradation process of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam remains surrounded in controversy since its very inception. Allegations were often made as regards Foreigners’ Tribunals (FT) declaring people as ‘foreigners’ in ‘ex-parte proceedings.’ Instances are replete when those declared ‘foreigners’ by the FT’s come to know about it decades later.

These allegations now appears to be true as the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India officially accepted that thousands were declared ‘foreigners’ by the Foreigners’ Tribunals (FT) in ‘ex-parte proceedings.

In response to a set of questions in the Lok Sabha from Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, the MHA came up with startling revelations on 2 July, 2019. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has disclosed that 63,959 people have been declared ‘foreigners’ by Foreigners Tribunals in Assam in ‘ex-parte proceedings’ from 1985 to 28 February 2019.

This means that thousands of declared ‘foreigners’ are there in Assam since 1985 without any hearing. It also exposed that when the Foreigners’ Tribunals passed orders declaring these people ‘foreigners’ and therefore liable to be sent to detention centres or be deported, they were neither present during the proceedings nor were they heard.

Tharoor’s also asked if any legal help was provided by the government to the detainees to challenge the tribunal orders in higher courts. To this, Minister of State for Home G. Kishen Reddy replied, “Free legal aid is being provided to detainees by District Legal Service Authority who are in need of it.”

The ex-parte judgments are passed without hearing the accused and thereby not giving a chance to the person to produce necessary documents and defend her citizenship. Set up as quasi judicial bodies under the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964 by the Ministry of Home Affairs, there are presently a hundred tribunals operational in Assam.