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1,820 declared foreigners by Tribunal approach High Court

By SANJOY RAY

GUWAHATI, Feb 18 - Of the 40,000-odd people declared as foreigners by the Foreigners� Tribunals (FTs) till date, only 1,820 have approached the High Court seeking review of the order.

The Gauhati High Court has already disposed of 885 of the 1,820 cases, while another 935 writ petitions are pending.

The statistics assume significance keeping in view of the recent incident where a Foreigners� Tribunal member (judge) of Goalpara was assaulted by a group of advocates expressing discontentment over a judgement.

Sources said that keeping in view the number of cases the existing Tribunals are handling on a daily basis, the number of 1,820 writ petitions seeking revision of the order is not alarming. However, there is no denying the fact that some orders passed by certain members of the FTs could not hold its ground in the higher court.

Sources even confided that the performance of the members of the FTs are being continuously evaluated by Dispur, and once the one-year term of some members ends in May this year, heads would definitely roll.

Even before the Goalpara incident took place, a State government team, comprising officials from the Home Department and Border Police had visited several FTs to assess the ground situation.

�The State government is reviewing the situation on a regular basis and it is with this idea that the government had issued a notification which would enable it to challenge the decision of the FTs even after someone is declared to be an �Indian citizen�, contrary to the submissions made by the investigation agency in question,� sources pointed out.

The government notifications issued last year also empower the district and State-level screening committees to examine and recommend the State government to challenge the decision of the Tribunals in the higher court wherever deemed fit.

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