On July 5, the Assam government asked the Border wing of the State’s police not to forward cases of non-Muslims who entered India illegally before 2014 to the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs).
This was in keeping with the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019
How do these tribunals decide whether a person is Indian or not?
The FTs are currently exclusive to Assam as cases of “illegal immigrants” are dealt with according to the Foreigners’ Act in other States.
Each FT is headed by a member drawn from judges, advocates, and civil servants with judicial experience
According to the 1964 order, an FT has the powers of a civil court in certain matters such as summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him or her on oath and requiring the production of any document.
A tribunal is required to serve a notice in English or the official language of the State to a person alleged to be a foreigner within 10 days of receiving the reference from the authority concerned.
Such a person has 10 days to reply to the notice and another 10 days to produce evidence in support of his or her case.
An FT has to dispose of a case within 60 days of reference.
If the person fails to provide any proof of citizenship, the FT can send him or her to a detention centre, now called transit camp, for deportation later.
Does the Border police play a role?
The Assam Police Border Organisation was established as a part of the State police’s Special Branch in 1962 under the Prevention of Infiltration of Pakistani (PIP) scheme.
After the liberation war of Bangladesh, the PIP scheme was renamed Prevention of Infiltration of Foreigners or PIF scheme.
The members of this wing are tasked with detecting and deporting illegal foreigners, patrolling the India-Bangladesh border with the Border Security Force, maintaining a second line of defence to check the entry of illegal foreigners, and monitoring people “settled in riverine areas
This is apart from referring people of suspicious citizenship to the FTs to decide whether they are Indian or not based on documents.
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