The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Centre and the Assam government on the plea of a disabled man who was declared a foreigner by a tribunal and faces deportation to Bangladesh, PTI reported.

The plea said Azizul Hoque, who has been lodged at a detention centre since March 2017, was declared a foreigner by a tribunal in the state on the grounds that neither he nor his representative appeared before the tribunal. The plea said Hoque did not appear for the proceedings as his lower limbs were paralysed. Hoque’s name had figured in the draft National Register of Citizens.

The bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose issued notices, seeking responses within three weeks.

Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde and lawyer Anas Tanwir, appearing for Hoque, said the foreigners tribunal and the Gauhati High Court, which upheld the tribunal’s decision, had erred in declaring him a foreigner.

The lawyers said Hoque’s plea was dismissed by the High Court despite accepting his medical certificate which showed he suffered from lower limb paralysis. “The name of the Petitioner along with his other family members appears in the draft NRC...,” the plea said.

The plea said Hoque was denied citizenship solely because he was unable to depute someone to appear for him at the Foreigners’ Tribunal.

“Neither tribunal nor the High Court appreciated that the petitioner has produced ‘jamabandi’ documents in name of his grandfather issued by the deputy commissioner, Nagaon in year 1941-42 along with voter lists excerpts of 1965 showing the name of his grandfather, grandmother, father and mother,” the plea said.

The Supreme Court is monitoring the finalisation of the controversial National Register of Citizens in Assam and had made clear that it will not extend the July 31 deadline for publication of the final list.

The draft Assam National Register of Citizens was published on July 30, 2018 in which the names of 2.89 crore of 3.29 crore people were included. The names of over 40 lakh people were not on the list. Of these, 37,59,630 names have been rejected and the remaining 2,48,077 are on hold.

The stated aim of the register is to separate genuine Indian citizens from undocumented immigrants living in Assam. According to the terms, anyone who cannot prove that they or their ancestors entered the state before midnight on March 24, 1971, will be declared a foreigner.