• The Assam Family must now prove their Indianness Thrice

    Regional
    The Assam Family must now prove their Indianness Thrice
    Similar warnings were also served on Nata Sundari's husband, Kashi Nath Mandal, 68, a daily wage labourer, and his son, Govinda, 40.

    Digital Desk:     normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> Nata Sundari Mandal, 66, received a summons
    from the Sonitpur Foreigners' Tribunal for the third time on June 8, saying she
    had entered India unlawfully between January 1, 1966, and March 23, 1971, and
    that she needed to depose before the tribunal to verify her citizenship.
    normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Similar warnings were also served on Nata
    Sundari's husband, Kashi Nath Mandal, 68, a daily wage labourer, and his son,
    Govinda, 40.

    normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Instead of being concerned, the family is
    perplexed.

    normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">The poor Hindu family from Balijan Kacahri
    hamlet would have to establish their citizenship for the third time.

     PROVING IDENTITY
    In 2016, they were judged legal citizens of the country
    by the Sonitpur tribunal after they furnished the legal documents. "In
    2018, my married elder sister, who lives in Assam's Darang district, was sent a
    notice. After confirming all of the documentation, the tribunal determined that
    they were Indians. In 2018, my father, Kashi Nath, received another notice.
    This was the second time he'd received a notice like this. We took it to the
    tribunal, and the judge ruled in my father's favour. "My father then told
    the magistrate that he is sick and weary of establishing his Indianness in his
    motherland and doesn't want to go through the legal wrangling again," said
    Nakul Mandal, another of Kashi Nath Mandal's sons.

    Our then-joint family has 38 individuals listed in the
    National Register of Citizenship 1951, which is required to be a citizen of the
    country and, more significantly, to live in Assam. Furthermore, our relatives'
    names appear on the voter lists for the elections of 1966, 1971, and subsequent
    years. Subal Chandra Mandal, my grandfather, is also listed in the 1951 NRC. My
    father and all members of his family are listed in the most recent NRC, which
    was released in 2019, and they have valid Aadhaar and PAN cards. "What
    else does one need to call oneself an Indian?" Nakul wondered, According to
    Nakul, the then Superintendent of Police had taken cognizance of the repeated
    notices to the family and the integrity of their proof. 

    THE
    COURT SAYS
    The Gauhati
    High Court declared on May 6 that a person who has previously demonstrated
    citizenship cannot be compelled to do so again.

    Hundreds of cases exist in Assam where persons have
    received letters from Foreigners' Tribunal courts despite demonstrating their
    Indian identification with sufficient documents. On April 28, a special bench of
    the Gauhati High Court issued an order citing Section 11 of the Code of Civil
    Procedure (1908), stating that a person who has been declared an Indian citizen
    once in a foreigner's tribunal proceeding cannot be asked to prove their
    citizenship again by FTs because the Res Judicata principle applies to these
    courts.

    In Assam, there are over a hundred
    tribunals in operation. At first, 11 IMDTs (Illegal Migrant Determination
    Tribunals) were in operation.

    A Foreigners' Tribunal in Assam's
    Cachar district issued a notice to a deceased person in March, requesting that
    he appear before it by March 30 because he had failed to submit legal
    documentation proving his Indian citizenship.

    The warning was delivered to Shyaman
    Charan Das, a resident of Udharbond's Thaligram village. In May of 2016, he
    passed away. Das was charged in 2015, but when he died in May of that year, his
    family submitted the death certificate, and the matter was dismissed in
    September of that year.     


    Share :

    Related News

    National

    Atishi slams BJP with Delhi's achievement in  affordable power supply 
    The newly appointed  CM of Delhi in her inaugural press conference shed light on the success of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in providing  low electricity rates to every households. 

    Regional

    Instagram Feed

    Follow Us