GUWAHATI, May 8 � Though Union Home Minister P Chidambaram recently commented in the Parliament that the Tribunals set up under the Foreigners� Act are the only option for detection and deportation of foreigners, the system of doing so turned up to be a farce in Assam, and more than 2.60 lakh cases are pending in the Tribunals.
Highly-placed official sources admitted before The Assam Tribune that the present system of detection of foreigners by the Tribunals is not functioning properly in the State and there is urgent need for reviewing the system to expedite the process of detection and deportation of foreigners. Sources also pointed out that Assam is the only state in the country where the foreigners have to be detected by the Tribunals. In all other states of the country, the police has the power to detect and deport foreigners and the process if much faster. A large number of foreigners detected in Delhi are regularly deported through West Bengal every year, sources pointed out.
Sources admitted that so far, the Government has not been able to provide necessary infrastructure to the Tribunals set up under the Foreigners� Act. The State now has 32 Tribunals and there is a proposal to set up four more Tribunals. However, 15 of the existing Tribunals do not have judges and the judges of the other Tribunals have been given the additional charge, which makes the process of detection of foreigners much slower. Sources said that either serving or retired persons of the rank of Additional District Judges can be appointed as members (Judges) of the tribunals set up under the Foreigners� Act and there is shortage of such persons. The serving judges are not keen on serving in the Tribunals as they do not get the facilities they get as District Judges. Most of the Judges of the Tribunals even do not have vehicles and shortage of manpower in the Tribunals adversely affected their functioning.
As the upper age limit for persons to be appointed as judges of the tribunals is 65, the Government also did not get adequate number of retired persons willing to serve in the Tribunals. The State Government has written to the Centre to increase the upper age limit of the judges of the Tribunals to 67 and the reply of the Centre is awaited. Under the circumstances, only increasing the number of Tribunals will not serve any purpose, sources admitted.
There are other major drawbacks in the process of detection of foreigners under the present system. As the cases are tried under the civil procedure and not under criminal procedure, the suspected foreigners are not required to present in the Tribunals and they can be represented by their advocates. Because of this system, majority of the suspected foreigners manage to shift to other places to avoid detection as soon as notices are served on them and it is almost impossible to find them. Even some of those who decide to contest their cases in the tribunals manage to escape if they feel that the judgment would go against them. The system will work only if there is a provision to detain the suspected foreigners during the process of hearing of the cases, sources admitted.
Sources admitted as less than 10 percent of those detected as foreigners by the Tribunals can be physically deported. However, the situation may improve as the Government has already notified four district jails as detention centres to detain those declared as foreigners till they are physically deported and two more permanent detention centres will be established. But the Government of India must strongly take up the matter with the Government of Bangladesh as the Bangladesh Rifles often refuse to accept those sought to be deported as their citizens.
Sources also pointed out that in 1964, more than a lakh foreigners were deported from Assam, which resulted in a major political turmoil and resulted in the setting up of the Tribunals under the Foreigners� Act. That is how Assam became the only state in the country where a person has to be declared a foreigner by a Tribunal before he can be deported.
