Gauhati High Court Upholds Foreigner Tag For Assam Labourer Despite 15 Citizenship Documents

An Assam daily-wage labourer has lost his challenge against a tribunal order declaring him a foreigner after the Gauhati High Court ruled that the 15 documents he submitted, including a copy of the 1951 National Register of Citizens (NRC), a 1973 land purchase deed and a school certificate, were insufficient to establish his claim to Indian citizenship.

The judgment comes days after the Ministry of External Affairs clarified that a passport is not proof of citizenship, though the two developments are unrelated. It also underscores the legal requirement under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946, which places the burden of proving citizenship on a person whose status as an Indian is in doubt.

A bench of Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Shamima Jahan upheld a February 28, 2019 order of Foreigners' Tribunal (FT) No. 4 in Kamrup (Metropolitan) district, which had declared 38-year-old Aminul Hoque a foreigner. Hoque had challenged the tribunal's order before the High Court.

To support his claim, Hoque submitted a copy of the 1951 NRC listing the names of his father and grandparents, voter identity cards, a Permanent Account Number (PAN), a school certificate and the original sale deed for land purchased in 1973.

The High Court held that the documents did not help him "establish that he has been able to discharge his burden", as required under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act.

Hoque's father also appeared before the court and identified the petitioner as his son. However, the bench held that the filing of a written statement and oral testimony, without documentary evidence that was both admissible and relevant, was insufficient in proceedings under the Foreigners Act.

Referring to an earlier judgment, the court said an NRC extract produced to establish domicile in India is inadmissible as evidence. It observed that the copy of the 1951 NRC produced by Hoque was only a computer-generated printout without the certificate required under Section 65B of the Evidence Act, 1872.

The bench also agreed with the tribunal's decision to discard the 1973 sale deed relating to land purchased by his grandfather, as claimed by Hoque. It noted that there was no explanation as to whether the land still existed or why it had not devolved upon the legal heirs of the petitioner's grandfather. The court held that Hoque had failed to establish that the tribunal had committed any patent error in its appreciation of the pleadings and evidence.

"...the court finds no material to hold that the opinion assailed in this writ petition is bad on facts or in law. The petitioner could not show that the said opinion was perverse on any count whatsoever. Therefore, this challenge fails, and consequently, this writ petition is dismissed," the court's order read.

The ruling comes against the backdrop of Assam's long-running process of identifying suspected foreigners. Foreigners' Tribunals determine citizenship claims using March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date prescribed under the Assam Accord of 1985, which ended a six-year agitation against "illegal immigrants", primarily from the newly-created Bangladesh.

In 2025, the BJP-led Assam government began using provisions of the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, to bypass the Foreigners' Tribunals and "push back" those deemed to be "foreigners" to Bangladesh.

(With inputs from The Hindu)