'Citizenship Process Must Be Fair, Lawful & Reasonable': Supreme Court Sets Aside Foreigner Declarations By Assam Tribunals

New Delhi: Stressing that citizenship disputes carry serious constitutional consequences, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the process of determining whether a person is an Indian citizen or a foreigner in Assam must be "fair, lawful and reasonable".

A Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta set aside 27 judgments of the Gauhati High Court that had upheld orders of the Foreigners Tribunals declaring the petitioners foreigners. The apex court remanded all the cases to the respective tribunals for fresh adjudication and directed that they be heard afresh without being influenced by any previous findings or observations.

SC stresses due process

Underscoring the importance of fairness in citizenship proceedings, the Bench observed that "The process of determining citizenship or declaring a person a foreigner must be fair, lawful and reasonable."

The court acknowledged the State's legitimate interest in preventing illegal claims to citizenship but made it clear that this objective cannot come at the cost of judicial fairness and due process, particularly in matters affecting a person's constitutional rights.

Fresh hearings ordered

The Supreme Court directed the concerned Foreigners Tribunals to reconsider all 27 cases independently on the basis of the evidence placed before them. It clarified that the tribunals must not be influenced by earlier observations made either by the High Court or the Foreigners Tribunals.

Pending the fresh hearings, the apex court ordered that no coercive action, including detention or deportation, be taken against the 27 petitioners.

Burden of proof remains unchanged

While granting relief to the petitioners, the court clarified that it had not examined the merits of their citizenship claims. It also reaffirmed that the statutory burden of proof under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946, which requires the person concerned to establish Indian citizenship, remains unchanged.

Background of the case

The petitions arose from Assam's long-standing process of identifying illegal immigrants through Foreigners Tribunals. Several individuals alleged they were declared foreigners over minor discrepancies in documents, including spelling errors, inconsistencies in names and issues linking family records with pre-1971 legacy documents.

Some petitioners argued that they had produced voter lists, land records and other documentary evidence establishing their lineage but were still declared foreigners on what they described as hyper-technical grounds.

The ruling comes weeks after the Supreme Court, in June, stayed the deportation of five women who had also been declared foreigners, reflecting the court's continued emphasis on procedural fairness in citizenship-related cases.