“Grave miscarriage of justice”, SC restores citizenship of man declared foreigner 12 years ago
The apex court also expressed deep concern over the state of district courts, where even judges, particularly in rural areas, still lack access to proper washroom facilities.
Photo: PTI/ Supreme Court of India
Guwahati, July 13: The Supreme Court on Thursday reinstated the citizenship of Rahim Ali, who had been declared a foreigner by a tribunal in Assam over 12 years ago.
The apex court criticised the initiation of the citizenship proceedings, describing it as a "grave miscarriage of justice."
The court said that Section 9 of the Foreigners Act does not empower authorities to “pick a person at random, knock at his/her/their door and tell him/her/they/them, ‘We suspect you of being a foreigner’, and then rest easy”.
A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah ruled in favour of Rahim Ali, highlighting significant flaws in the legal process initiated by the police in 2004, which led to his wrongful designation as a foreigner. The Court noted that the police were responsible for providing details on how they obtained information suggesting Ali had come to Assam from Bangladesh.
“It is for the authorities concerned to have in their knowledge or possession some material basis or information to suspect that a person is a foreigner and not an Indian. In the present case… nothing has come on record to indicate even an iota of evidence against him, except for the bald allegation that he had illegally migrated to India post 25.03.1971,” said the judgement, adding that even information on who made the allegation is not known or disclosed.
Ali had earlier challenged the decision of Foreigners Tribunal before the Gauhati High Court. Though the High Court initially stayed the operation of the tribunal's order, his plea was dismissed in November 2015.
This led to the instant appeal before the Supreme Court.
The court further noted that Rahim Ali had submitted documents indicating his presence in India before 1971. However, these were dismissed by the foreigners tribunal due to minor discrepancies in spelling and dates. The court remarked that such errors are common in electoral rolls and government records.
“It is not uncommon throughout India that different spellings may be written in the regional/vernacular language and in English. Such/same person will have a differently spelt name in English and the local language. This is more pronounced where due to specific pronunciation habits or styles there can be different spellings for the same name".
Hence, the court set aside the orders of the High Court and Foreigners Tribunal.