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.
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