'Citizenship must be determined through fair process': SC sets aside 27 foreigner declarations by Gauhati HC

New Delhi : The top court directed the tribunals to reconsider the cases independently, without being influenced by the earlier findings of either the Foreigners Tribunals or the Gauhati High Court.

In a significant ruling, Supreme Court on Monday set aside 27 judgments of the Gauhati High Court that had upheld orders of Foreigners Tribunals declaring the appellants to be foreigners, holding that questions of citizenship must be decided through a "fair, lawful and reasonable" process.

As per a report by LiveLaw, a Bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta remanded all 27 cases to the concerned Foreigners Tribunals for fresh adjudication, observing that citizenship and foreigner status involve issues of "high constitutional and legal significance."

"Citizenship and foreigner status occupy a field of high constitutional and legal significance," the Bench observed, while stressing that any determination affecting an individual's citizenship must be made through a process that is fair, lawful and reasonable.

The top court directed the tribunals to reconsider the cases independently, without being influenced by the earlier findings of either the Foreigners Tribunals or the Gauhati High Court.

"The concerned Tribunals shall decide the cases afresh and uninfluenced by any of the observations made by the High Court or by the Tribunals in the earlier opinions," the court said.

The judgment came in a batch of appeals challenging ex parte orders passed by the Foreigners Tribunals, which had declared the appellants to be foreigners. The Gauhati High Court had subsequently upheld those orders.

The High Court had dismissed the petitions primarily on the ground that the tribunal's opinions were challenged after nearly 23 years. It had also noted that the petitioners had failed to appear before the tribunals despite being served notices.

In upholding the tribunal orders, the High Court had relied on Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946, which places the burden of proving Indian citizenship on the person concerned rather than on the government.