The Gauhati High court has set aside an order passed by a Foreigners’ Tribunals to declare a husband and wife in Assam’s Golaghat district as foreigners.
The high court asked the Tribunal to dispose off the matter within two months time.
The division bench comprising Justice Monjit Bhuyan and Kalyan Rai Surana also remanded the case back to the Foreigners’ Tribunal asking the petitioner to submit their grievances in the tribunal.
The Foreigners’ Tribunal at Jorhat district have in December last year declared Muzibur Rahman and his wife Georgina Begum as foreigners.
Rahman, who has been working in the capacity of an assistant sub inspector (ASI) with the BSF, is posted at Punjab at present.
“The Foreigners’ Tribunals at Jorhat had declared both the husband and wife as foreigners on December 21, 2018. We moved the high court against the Tribunal’s judgement and submitted our prayer with documentary evidence to prove that Rahman and his wife are Indian citizens,” Rahman’s counsel Nekibur Zaman said.
Zaman said that Muzibur Rahman belongs to a family of freedom fighter and they are indigenous Muslim family of Assam.
He said they have land documents dating back to 1926.
“Based on our prayer and argument, a divisional bench of the Gauhati High Court has set aside the FT order dated December 21, 2018.
“The Bench also asked us to submit the grievances in the FT on September 27 and instructed the FT to dispose of the matter within two month time,” Zaman said.
Zaman said that the Border police had never served any notice to the Rahmans.
They only served a notice at the house of the Gaon Burha (village head) sometime back and submitted a report to the Tribunal, which led the Tribunals to declare the Rahmans as foreigners ex parte, he said.
“Muzibur and his wife never received any summon from the Tribunal. It is only recently during Rahma’s vacation in Assam that he came to know that he and his wife were declared foreigners,” said Zaman.
Earlier, a Foreigners’ Tribunal in Assam’s Kamrup district declared retired Army officer Md Sana Ullah as foreigner following which he was sent to detention camp.
The Gauhati High court granted an interim bail to Md. Sana Ullah but he is fighting a legal battle in the court to prove his Indian citizenship.