With the publication of the final and updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam today and the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) the resort for those excluded to apply for inclusion, Amnesty International India has expressed its deep concerns about the functioning of the 100 and more FTs.
Amnesty International India has urged the Assam Government to ensure that the FTs function with utmost transparency and are in line with the fair trial standards guaranteed under national and international law.
“The FTs, which will decide the Indian citizenship of millions of people, are quasi-judicial bodies where persons claimed to be foreigners have the responsibility to prove that they are Indian citizens. Several reports have demonstrated how the proceedings before FTs are arbitrary, while their orders are biased and discriminatory. Although the Government of India is within its sovereign right to update NRC, it must ensure that it is not depriving a person of his/her nationality on arbitrary or vague grounds, by diminishing procedural due process, or if such deprivation stands to render a person stateless,” Aakar Patel, Head of Amnesty International India, said in a statement.
The statement alleged that instances of the FTs declaring citizens as ‘irregular foreigners’ over clerical errors—such as minor differences in spellings of names or age in electoral rolls, or slight contradictions between answers given in cross-examinations and what is written in the documents—are appallingly common.
“The nationality determination process of the FTs is divorced from the reality of documents in India. In many instances, people are facing detention and deportation largely because they do not have documents to show their parents or even grandparents were Indian citizens. It is unreasonable to expect people fleeing from violence and natural disasters to preserve half a century-old original identity documents,” Patel said.
Amnesty International India also expressed its concern about alleged gender discrimination in the proceedings before the tribunals, which are purportedly heavily weighed against married women.
The rights body further pointed that over 63,000 people were declared foreigners by FTs in ex-parte hearings, and maintained that ‘this is a blow to their right to a fair hearing, as guaranteed under both Indian and international law’.
Various media reports have alluded to the Assam Government applying pressure on members to allegedly declare large numbers of people as “irregular foreigners”, the statement claimed.
“Assam is on the brink of a crisis which would not only lead to a loss of nationality and liberty of a large group of people but also the erosion of their basic rights – severely affecting the lives of generations to come. Transparency in foreigner tribunal proceedings and strict adherence to fair trial standards can prevent this impending crisis,” Patel added.
More than 19 lakh applicants have been left out of the final and updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam, which was published today.
Out of 3.30 crore applicants, over 3.11 crore names were included in the final list of the citizenship document. (UNI)
