The Assam Cabinet on Tuesday cleared an SOP for implementing a 1950 law that empowers District Commissioners, instead of Foreigners Tribunals, to give “suspected foreigners” 10 days to prove their Indian citizenship or face “evacuation orders,” which, according to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, will allow the state government to bypass the existing citizenship determination system.
Following Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Sarma announced that an SOP had been approved to operationalise the 1950 Act, which he said would largely “nullify the role of the state’s Foreigner’s Tribunals.”
Explaining the process, Sarma said, “If the DC is informed that someone is a foreigner, whether by the border police or other sources, the DC will issue a notice giving that person 10 days to prove their citizenship.”
“If the documents submitted within that period do not satisfy the DC, on the tenth day, an evacuation order will be passed. The person will then be taken to a holding centre, and from there, the BSF will push them back to Bangladesh or Pakistan,” he said.
Stating that the state government had decided to bypass Foreigners Tribunals, Biswa Sarma clarified, “Only in a confusing case, where the DC cannot arrive at a clear conclusion, if the DC can’t prima facie determine that the person is a foreigner, will the matter be referred to the FT.”
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.
