GUWAHATI: Assam cabinet, in an unprecedented decision on Friday, approved withdrawal of all pending cases in Foreigners’ Tribunals (FTs) against members of the Koch-Rajbongshi community, which effectively clears the path for recognising them as Indian citizens and removal of ‘doubtful voter’ (D) tag against their names in the electoral rolls.
“There are 28,000 names of Koch-Rajbongshi people who have been suffering from the humiliation of being labelled as foreigners for long. State govt believes they are natives and an integral part of Assam,” chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, terming the decision as “historic”.
FTs are quasi-judicial bodies, established in Assam to determine if a person residing in India is a “foreigner”, as defined under the Foreigners Act of 1946, based on the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order of 1964. There are 100 FTs functioning in the state, where more than 96,000 cases are pending. Once the tribunal declares a person a foreigner, s/he is sent to a detention camp.
The person can appeal against the FT order before the high court and the Supreme Court. If cleared by the tribunal, the person is accepted as a citizen.
Two kinds of cases are heard by these tribunals – those referred by the border police wing of Assam Police, and cases of individuals tagged as ‘D (doubtful) voters’ by the Election Commission of India.
The Koch-Rajbongshi people are spread across Assam, Meghalaya and north Bengal, apart from parts of Bihar, and also in Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. In Assam, the Koch-Rajbongshis community is estimated to have a population of around 4.6 lakh (2011 Census), and mainly resides in Dhubri, Goalpara and Bongaigaon districts. They have been demanding Scheduled Tribe (ST) status and a separate state of Kamatapur.
