The Assam Cabinet on Friday decided to withdraw 28,000 cases pending against members of the Koch Rajbongshi community in the state’s foreigners tribunals, announced Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

In a social media post, Sarma said the decision was taken “given the integral role of the Koch Rajbongshi community in Assam’s heritage”.

The foreigners tribunals in the state are quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate on matters of citizenship. There are 100 such tribunals in the state.

People excluded from the National Register of Citizens for Assam or whose citizenship has been marked as “doubtful” can appeal to the tribunals.

Assam published a National Register of Citizens on August 31, 2019, with the aim of separating Indian citizens from undocumented immigrants living in the state. Residents had to prove that they or their ancestors had entered Assam before midnight on March 24, 1971 for them to be included in the list.

Over 19 lakh persons, or 5.77% of the applicants, were left out of the final list.

As of December 31, 2023, 96,149 cases were pending before the state’s foreigners tribunals. These include cases referred by the border police or of people marked as doubtful voters in electoral rolls, The Indian Express reported.

“They are today fighting cases, bearing the insult of being called foreigners,” the chief minister was quoted as saying by The Indian Express on Friday. “The Assam government believes that Koch Rajbongshi are an indigenous community. They are an indispensable limb of Assam’s culture. So the state government has decided to withdraw these cases.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader added that they will no longer be considered doubtful, or “D” voters, PTI reported.

In 2021, the state government provided similar relief to 22,000 members of the Gurkha community.

The Koch Rajbongshi community, along with five others in the state, are seeking Scheduled Tribe status – a promise that the BJP had made before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The decision to withdraw cases against them comes months after the Assam government asked the state’s border police not to forward cases of non-Muslims who entered India illegally before 2014 to foreigners tribunals.

The border police, which investigates citizenship cases, was told on July 5 that applicants belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Parsi, Jain and Buddhist faiths should “be advised” to apply for citizenship on the Citizenship Amendment Act portal, and that their cases would be decided by the Union government.

In March, the Assam government stated that of the 39 applicants under the Act, only two have been granted Indian citizenship so far. Eighteen were being examined, whereas 19 applications were “closed”.