What next after NRC ? : foreigners’ tribunals unlikely to deliver justice or ensure closure

A windfall awaits people in Assam who are eligible to become members of Foreigners’ Tribunals. Being a member of the Assam Foreigners’ Tribunal comes with its perks: a monthly salary Rs 85,000, Rs 4,000 as house rent allowance, a hired vehicle, 60 litres of petrol per month, a personal security officer, 10 staff members. There is also a government pleader attached to each office.

With the state government now planning to increase the number of tribunals from 10 to 100 in the first phase and eventually to 1000, lawyers, former subordinate judges and eligible government employees keen to serve in the tribunals for a three-year term, which can get extended, are looking forward to the unexpected bonanza.

The 19 lakh people left out of the final NRC (National Register of Citizens) will have to now file their appeals in Foreigners’ Tribunals which are accused of having bent backwards to reject appeals and inflate the number of ‘ foreigners’ under the impression, valid or not, that higher the rejections, the brighter the chances of renewal of their contracts.

“Who will want to let go of these perks? Many genuine people have been excluded. In order to stop the harassment, a national identity card must be issued. At least 12 to 14 lakh out of the excluded will easily sail through,” confides one of the more neutral members of a tribunal.

“Many of the members need to stop these acts of human rights abuse. But they don’t want the process to end as that would mean an end to their perks and benefits. Each Tribunal member is hired on a three-year contract and it is extended if the government finds their job satisfactory. And it is a known fact that government extends their tenure if more people are rejected, and preferably if the excluded are Muslims,” explained another.

Verification of a large number of individuals excluded from the NRC was first initiated in 1997/1998 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee headed a NDA Government at the Centre and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta of Asom Gana Parishad was the Chief Minister of Assam. Many of those individuals migrated since then from one district to another and some event out of the state and were blissfully ignorant that they were under scrutiny. Many never received summons and notices because the addresses had changed.

People are waiting for formal notices that they have been excluded from the NRC. The government is in the process of setting up 200 more tribunals immediately. Two hundred additional tribunals would then be set up within the next three months,” says SB Rahman, a lawyer.

“We have requested our volunteers to collect data of all those excluded from the NRC as the Government has not released the final list. Once we collect this data, we will have to figure out how to appeal to the tribunals. It will be a long-drawn process,” reflects Abdul Basith of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR).

Others hope to challenge the authority of the tribunals citing that Article 323 B, which mentions matters which can be adjudicated by the tribunals, makes no mention of citizenship. “Citizenship cannot be adjudicated by a Tribunal. The point is that even if a person’s name appears in the NRC it is still no proof of citizenship; anyone can go and file an objection and people will be back to square one. So, what was the point of the NRC? These foreign tribunals cannot be allowed to go on forever,” fumes Nilim Dutta of United People’s Movement.

There is, however, relief that with the NRC doubts that Assam is teeming with foreigners will be dispelled. The popular perception that Bangladeshis have grabbed land and resources will take a beating. “We stand by the NRC. There are several flaws in the process, but politicians cannot now keep citing outrageous figures that four or five million infiltrators are in the state,” hoped a government official, who did not wish to be named.

“At least four lakh people did not apply for inclusion in the NRC. At least one lakh Gorkhas have been excluded from the list. In Hojai, at least 20% Hindus find their names missing from the NRC. Many politicians do not want this list to be finalised because their figures do not match with the NRC,” says Shamsher Ali, who has been organising camps under the banner of Citizens for Justice and Peace to help people file complete applications.

“No one is completely satisfied with the NRC. There are a number of South Indian families who have settled here. There are more Malayalees and Telugu-speaking residents than Tamilians in the state. But even in my family, my sister-in-law and a cousin haven’t been included in the list. They will have to appeal, and it is a time-consuming process,” said a Tamilian.

The government has said that they would offer legal assistance to those who are poor and have been excluded from the NRC. But no one on the ground seems to harbour much faith in the Government. “We don’t think the Government will help us. They keep making announcements, but hardly anything comes out of it,” quips Satyan Sarma from Cachar.

“Despite, the government’s announcement, there has been no movement in that regard. They have to first appoint lawyers and we have to see the quality of the lawyers being appointed. Just by appointing lawyers, the government cannot wash their hands off. Effective legal aid has to be provided and if they appoint young lawyers who do not understand the process, it will only complicate matters for the poor and the illiterate who have been excluded,” added Rahman, who is hoping to set up a Trust along with lawyer Aman Wadud to provide legal assistance.

Parboti M, has been in a detention centre for three years. “The Foreigners’ Tribunal refused to accept her father’s statement that she was his daughter. He had only one child. So, who else would have vouched for her? Now, we are going to file an application to get her out as the rules state that people can’t remain in detention centres for more than three years,” underscored Shamsher Ali, who works with the Centre for Justice and Peace.

Hassan Ali’s is another case in point. The process of exclusion began in 1997. But he had no clue. He first received the notice towards the end of 2018. “How can the government issue a notice on the basis of a baseless report filed two decades ago? The border police should have checked it and realised that the initial document filed by the electoral officer was erroneous,” asked Nilim Dutta, a member of the Unified People’s Movement.

When electoral rolls were being revised, the local verifying officer (LVO) sent a report about ‘doubtful voters’ after an on-the-spot verification. The LVO was required to file Form A and send it to the electoral registration officer (ERO). The ERO was expected to scrutinise the grounds and fill up Form B before forwarding it to the Superintendent of Police (SP). The SP was expected to conduct an investigation and refer the case to the concerned Foreigners’ Tribunal if the investigation confirmed the grounds cited in the two forms. The Tribunal then issued a summon for trial.

The Police, especially the Border Police, could also haul up people on suspicion and refer them to the tribunal and detain them in the meanwhile.

What often happened in Assam, say activists, is that the LVO fished out Muslim names from the voter list randomly and filled up the form, initiating the process to mark an individual as a ‘foreigner’. This is what happened in Hassan Ali’s case.

‘Form A’ for him contained only the information that was already on the voter list: his father’s name and his village address. All the other fields were left blank including his mother tongue and family details.

The LVO claimed he had done the field verification in 1997. The form was sent to the ERO the same year. The ERO mechanically filled up Form B and sent it to the SP. Nothing in the two forms indicated that Hassan Ali was a foreigner. The SP, who was supposed to have conducted an investigation, noted that ‘Hussein Ali’ was suspected to be a foreigner. The police officer introduced a mistake by misspelling the name ‘Hassan’ Ali as ‘Hussein Ali’.

No papers were attached, no ground was cited, no reason was given and no details of cross-examination affixed to the report sent to the tribunal in 1998. The Tribunal sent a notice to ‘Hussein’ Ali in October 2018 and predictably ‘Hassan’ Ali did not receive it. Nor did the notice state any reason for suspecting him to be a foreigner.

Hassan Ali’s family claims to have been living in Assam the state for two centuries. All his brothers are farmers and small traders, some working on daily wages. They claim to be originally from Baksa in the

Bodoland area. After their homes were burnt in the communal violence of 1994, they moved to Barpeta.

A petition was filed on behalf of Ali to point out that standard procedures had not been followed. The notice sent to him had cited no ground to suspect him to be a foreigner. His lawyers asked for certified copies of the reports and the Barpeta Foreigners’ Tribunal reluctantly parted with a photo copy and not authenticated reports on stamp papers.

Soon thereafter, a clerk from the court called Hassan Ali and threatened him to change his lawyers. Hassan Ali’s petition, not surprisingly, is still pending before the tribunal. If an individual failed to file a response to the Tribunal, he was declared a foreigner ‘ex parte’. Almost 58 per cent of the individuals left out of the NRC were declared foreigners ‘ex parte’, claim activists.

Lakhs of people who received the notices were semi-literate labourers. They found it hard to follow why they were served notices despite having lived in the state for 60 years or even longer.

(All names have been changed to protect the identity of the people)