By Maktoob
The Supreme Court of India has intervened to halt the deportation of four Muslim women from Assam who were previously stripped of their citizenship status and declared foreign nationals by a state Foreigners Tribunal, Live Law reported.
A vacation bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice V. Mohana passed the interim order, effectively pausing the deportation proceedings and providing temporary relief to the affected individuals.
In addition to halting their expulsion, the apex court issued formal notices to the Union Government, the Assam State Government, and the Election Commission of India, demanding their detailed responses regarding the matter within a four-week deadline.
The four petitioners seeking legal recourse are Saleha Khatun, Sarbhanu Begum, Musstt Nureza Begum, and Basiran Nessa (also identified as Basiran Nessa Fuzail).
These women, most of whom are illiterate and live well below the poverty line, have been detained at the Matia transit camp in Goalpara district, Assam.
Through their legal counsel, Advocate-on-Record Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, the women filed Special Leave Petitions challenging the Gauhati High Court decisions that had previously upheld the Foreigners Tribunal orders against them.
Their appeals collectively argued that the tribunals and the High Court subjected their documentary evidence to hyper-technical scrutiny, disregarding legitimate proof of citizenship due to minor administrative, clerical, or human errors.
Among the specific cases, fifty-year-old Saleha Khatun has been held in the Goalpara detention facility since March 2.
Khatun had provided pre-1971 electoral records from Nagaon district showing her lineage to her parents, Ahsan Ali and Korpuljan, along with National Register of Citizens (NRC) legacy details, voter lists, and oral testimony from her sister.
However, the tribunal dismissed her documents due to minor age discrepancies and a failure to cross-examine the authority that issued her linkage certificate.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.