Gauhati High Court Declares Assam Woman 'Indian' By Setting Aside Foreigners' Tribunal Order

The Gauhati High Court last week declared an Assam woman, Puspa Rani Dhar as an Indian by setting aside an order of a foreigners' tribunal in Assam's Bongaigaon declaring her as a foreigner.

A division bench comprising Justice N. Kotiswar Singh and Justice Malasri Nandi also ruled that the question of registration of the petitioner who is otherwise Indian does not arise as she had been an Indian and not a foreigner at any point in time.

The Court observed thus in response to the argument for the Counsel for the State that even if the petitioner is declared to be an Indian, she would be required to register herself with the Registering Authority.

Case background 

The Tribunal had said that the certificate dated January 31, 2003, issued by the Railway authorities was irrelevant in proving that she was an Indian.

Essentially, the said certificate indicated that the name of the petitioner's husband was Mrinal Kanti Dhar, who served in the N.F. Railway and was born in February 1943 and he was appointed in the Railways in 1962 and retired in 2033.

The said certificate also showed the name of the petitioner as the wife of Mrinal Kanti Dhar having the date of birth on January 1, 1952.

Court's observations 

At the outset, the Court noted that it failed to understand, how the said document could be said to be irrelevant and liable to be rejected.

"Rather it shows that the petitioner who was married to the aforesaid Mrinal Kanti Dhar, was serving in the Indian Railways and as such, there is a remote possibility of the petitioner being a foreigner and this document will show, in absence of any contrary proof, that in probability the petitioner would be an Indian as an Indian is most unlikely to marry a foreigner."

Further, the court took into account the certificate issued by the Bengal Medical Union dated 1966, wherein it was certified that one Hirendra Nath Paul whom the petitioner claims to be her father, is a member of the said Union.

This document would also indicate that if his father was in Bengal in 1966, this will be a piece of strong corroborative evidence that the petitioner is an Indian, the Court noted.

The Court also took into account the voters' lists of 1997, 2005 & 2016, wherein the name of the petitioner was shown along with her husband Mrinal Kanti Dhar.

Against this backdrop, the Court observed that the claim of the petitioner that she is the wife of Mrinal Kanti Dhar and also the daughter of Hirendra Nath Paul had not been shaken, which had been duly proved by her by the aforesaid pieces of evidence.

Concluding, the Court opined that the petitioner had been able to produce sufficient evidence before the learned Tribunal to show that she is an Indian citizen and not a foreigner.

"If the aforesaid document is accepted by the Tribunal, in our view, this will be the clinching evidence in favor of the petitioner that she is a daughter of Hirendra Nath Paul who was residing in Bengal during 1966 and as such, she is an Indian in the light of the other evidence adduced by her.," the Court ruled by declaring her as Indian and not a foreigner.

Case title - Smti Puspa Rani Dhar v. The Union of India and others

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