Assam govt plans to conduct crash course for Foreigners' Tribunals judges

Guwahati: The Assam government has planned to conduct a special course for judges of the Foreigners' Tribunals (FT) in the state after an affidavit was filed before the Guwahati High Court by the state Home Department.

The affidavit said that in about 85 per cent of cases that are referred to FTs, the petitioners were declared citizens later.

An FT is a quasi-judicial body, and a member of the Tribunal has a designation similar to that of a judge.

The Tribunal hears the cases of suspected illegal immigrants and passes orders about their citizenship.

A senior state government official said: “Following the High Court order, which said that FT orders were approved without adequate consideration and justification, the matter was discussed internally.

“We believe that the court's identified predicament may be resolved with the aid of a crash course. Because the FT members are also senior individuals, the department official will soon meet with the law university staff to finalise a schedule for the course and the length of the unique course."

The high court bench voiced concern that individuals may have been labeled as foreigners in several instances without providing justification or doing a thorough analysis of the documentation in existence.

The court also stated that it was possible for foreigners to have been mistakenly identified as Indians by the tribunals.