The Supreme Court has overturned a Gauhati High Court order that had declined to dismiss a case against a woman in a foreigners tribunal in Assam.

A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and KV Viswanathan noted that a foreigners tribunal had ruled in August 2016 that the woman, Tarabhanu Khatoon, was not a foreigner. Initiating fresh proceedings against her was “nothing but an abuse of the process of law”, and the High Court should have stopped it, the bench said in its order on April 22.

The woman was accused of entering Assam after the cut-off date of March 25, 1971. However, on 31 August, 2016, a foreigners tribunal in Assam’s Nalbari district held that she was an Indian citizen, noting that the names of her parents were in the voter lists of 1966 and 1970.

Only those living in the state before this March 25, 1971, or their descendants, qualify as Indian citizens in Assam, as per the Assam Accord.

The tribunal observed that the state presented no witnesses, while the appellant provided both documents and oral evidence showing her parents were Indian citizens. She also stated she married a person identified as Chanu Sheikh in 1979 and had been voting since 1985.

Despite this order, a fresh notice was issued to Khatoon in December 2018, which she challenged before the High Court.

Although the High Court noted that she had already been declared not a foreigner, it dismissed the writ petition in May 2023, stating she could present her arguments before the tribunal in the new case. This prompted her to approach the Supreme Court.

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

In February, Scroll tracked down relatives of seven of the 63 persons who were declared foreigners and have challenged the order of the foreigners’ tribunals in various constitutional courts, including in the Supreme Court. All of them contested the Assam government’s claim that they were from Bangladesh.


Also read: ‘Prove we are Bangladeshi’: Assam families protest Supreme Court’s deportation push