Once declared ‘Indian’ by FTs, a person cannot be branded as foreigner later: Gauhati HC
The Hindu
The Court was dealing with a batch of writ petitions concerning the question of the applicability of the principle of ‘res judicata’ in the proceeding before Foreigners Tribunal
The Gauhati High Court has ruled that if a person has been declared an Indian citizen by a Foreigners Tribunal [FT] in Assam, he or she cannot be tried for a second time in the tribunal and stamped as a foreigner.
A Division Bench of Justices N. Kotiswara Singh and Malashri Nandy, in a recent order passed on a set of 12 petitions, stated that the principle of ‘res judicata’ [meaning that once the matter has been decided it cannot be reopened by the same parties] was applicable to the FTs in the state.
The High Court observed that the common theme which runs through the batch of writ petitions filed before them is the applicability of the principle of ‘res judicata’.
The petitioners’ contentions are based on the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of one Abdul Kuddus that subsequent proceedings before the FTs are barred by the principle of ‘res judicata’.
The Court directed that whenever a petitioner takes the plea of applicability of ‘res judicata’ on the ground that he had already been declared an Indian by the FT in an earlier proceeding, the tribunal has to first determine whether the petitioner is the same person who was proceeded in the earlier case or not.
“For that purpose, there can be examination of evidence in the form of oral documents and evidence and if the tribunal comes to the conclusion that the person was the same as in the earlier proceeding, there is no need to go into the merit of the case any further,” the judges ruled.
On the plea of applicability of ‘res judicata’, the subsequent proceeding shall be closed, without any further examination, on the basis of the earlier opinion that the person was not a foreigner, the order stated.
Demanding State and Union governments to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu and to open Mettur dam on June 12, members of Tamizhaga Cauvery Vivasayigal Sangam, headed by its general secretary P.R. Pandian, started a two day protest march to Mettur dam from Poompuhar, one of the prominent tail end part of the Cauvery, on Monday
The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru on Monday hosted a three-day National Conference on Classical Languages of India, with the objective of encouraging the development of language, linguistics, and literature by researching, and promoting the rich heritage of classical languages in view of NEP-2020.