GUWAHATI: The Assam government has notified the setting up of 200 more Foreigners' Tribunals (FTs) which will take the overall number of the FTs to 300.
Their formation was necessitated as over 19 lakh people were excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the final draft of which was published on August 31 last.
The new FTs will be set up in the state’s all 33 districts. The state government has already appointed 221 new “members” who will head the FTs. The appointees are practising lawyers, retired bureaucrats and civil servants.
The appeal against exclusion from the NRC must be filed in the quasi-judicial tribunals within 120 days of the publication of the final NRC. The process will begin as and when the NRC authorities start issuing the “speaking orders” to the excluded citing the reasons of their exclusions.
The appeal against exclusion from the NRC must be filed in the quasi-judicial tribunals within 120 days of the publication of the final NRC.
People not getting relief in the FTs can subsequently move the Gauhati High Court and then the Supreme Court. As of now, none of the excluded can be viewed as an illegal immigrant. Assam government has notified setting up of 200 more appellate Foreigners' Tribunals for hearing of appeals of people, excluded from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The facilities, to be set up in all the 33 districts of the state, will be in addition to the existing 100 Foreigners' Tribunals (FTs), according to an official release on Thursday night.
The final NRC was released on August 31 with 19,06,657 of the total 3,30,27,661 applicants excluded and 3,11,22,004 included.
The process of NRC update was started in Assam following a Supreme Court order in 2013 and since then, the apex court has been closely monitoring the entire process.
The districts and number of additional appellate FTs as per the September 23 government notification are, Baksa district 6, Biswanath 5, Bongaigaon 5, Barpeta 7, Cachar 9, Charaideo 1, Chirang 2, Darrang 10, Dhemaji 3, Dhubri 8, Dibrugarh 3.
The other districts are Dima Hasao 1, Goalpara 8, Golaghat 5, Hailakandi 8, Hojai 11, Jorhat 7, Kamrup (Metro) 15, Kamrup (Rural) 8, Karimganj 8, Karbi Anglong 4, Kokarajhar 5, Lakhimpur 7, Majuli 1, Morigaon 8, Nagaon 15, Nalbari 2, Sivasagar 3, Sonitpur 8, South Salmara 2, Tinsukia 9, Udalguri 4 and West Karbi Anglong 2.
(With PTI inputs)