New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday, June 13, set aside a batch of Gauhati High Court judgments that had upheld the declaration of 27 people as foreigners, holding that citizenship and foreigner status must be determined through a “fair, lawful and reasonable” process.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta allowed the appeals and remanded the cases to the concerned Foreigners Tribunals for fresh adjudication, observing that questions of citizenship carry “profound constitutional significance.”
“Citizenship and foreigner status occupy a field of high constitutional and legal significance,” the bench said.
Balance State’s interest with fairness: SC
The court acknowledged that the government has a stake in preventing misuse of the citizenship process, but made clear this could not come at the cost of a fair hearing.
“The State has a legitimate and compelling interest in ensuring that persons who are not legally entitled to claim Indian citizenship do not secure such status by misuse of process, by false claim or by taking advantage of delays,” the bench said, adding that the statutory burden of proof under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946, would remain fully applicable.
The top court clarified that it had not examined the merits of the appellants’ citizenship claims or assessed the genuineness of any document they had relied upon, leaving those questions for the tribunals to decide independently.
It also cautioned that the remand should not be read as any indication of relief for the appellants. “The remand being directed is not intended to confer any equity in favour of a person who is unable to establish his or her claim,” the bench said, adding that it was meant only to ensure that a declaration of foreigner status followed a process meeting the requirements of the Foreigners Act, the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, and constitutional fairness.
The bench directed the tribunals to decide the cases afresh, “uninfluenced” by any earlier observations made by the High Court or the tribunals themselves.
Gauhati High Court’s original order
In the lead case, Swasthi Dey v Union of India, the Gauhati High Court had dismissed the appellants’ challenge to an ex parte order declaring them foreigners, noting that they had failed to appear before the tribunal despite being served notices and had approached the court roughly 23 years after the tribunal’s original order.
Relying on Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, the High Court had held that the burden of proving Indian citizenship rested entirely on the proceedee and did not shift even in ex parte proceedings.
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