Guwahati: The Assam government has quietly instructed district authorities and Foreigners’ Tribunals (FTs) to drop cases against Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis—if they entered the state on or before 31 December 2014.
The justification: these individuals fall within the ambit of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has denied issuing any fresh or special directive to drop such cases, saying the government is only following provisions already in the CAA.
“If there is any cabinet decision, I always come and share it with you. No special decision has been taken,” he told reporters on 8 August 2025.
Sarma said protections for these groups stem solely from the CAA, which remains “the law of the land unless the Supreme Court strikes it down,” and clarified that formal withdrawal orders have so far been issued only for the Koch Rajbongshi and Gorkha communities, not the six communities named in the Act.
The directive followed a 17 July 2025 meeting chaired by senior officials from the state’s Home and Political Department, Scroll.in first reported on 5 August 2025.
The meeting minutes stated that FTs “are not supposed to pursue cases of foreigners belonging to the six specified communities (Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Parsi, and Jain) who had entered Assam on or before 31.12.2014.”
District commissioners and senior superintendents of police were asked to “immediately convene a meeting with their respective FT members, review developments periodically, and submit action-taken reports to this department.”
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.
