Assam not to send pre-2014 immigrants to foreigners tribunal

Guwahati: The Assam government has issued instructions to the state police not to forward cases of eligible individuals under the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, who entered India before 2014 (the cut-off date under CAA) directly to the Foreigners Tribunals. Instead, these individuals should be asked to apply for citizenship through CAA. Their applications will be assessed by the Government of India based on the facts and circumstances of each case. A separate register will be maintained for this category of individuals.

However, the directive specifies that this differential treatment will not apply to individuals who entered Assam from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, or Pakistan after December 31, 2014, regardless of their religion. These individuals will be forwarded directly to the jurisdictional Foreigners Tribunal for further action once detected.

In Assam, a foreigner's tribunal decides whether a person, accused of being an illegal immigrant, is a foreign or Indian citizen.


On July 5, the Home and Political Department of the Assam government wrote to the Special Director General of Police (Border) of the Assam police, stating that people eligible to apply for citizenship under CAA should not be referred to Foreigners Tribunals and that a special registry of such people be maintained.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said that only eight individuals had applied for citizenship under CAA in the state, four months after the rules were notified. "Of these, only two have attended their interviews," Sarma stated.

The CAA, passed by the Centre in 2019, aims to expedite Indian citizenship for Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians who fled religious persecution in Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan before December 31, 2014. Sarma explained that it had become evident that members of the Bengali Hindu community, who are not listed on the National Register of Citizens (NRC), were not applying for citizenship under the CAA. "They say they came to India before 1971," he said, referring to the cut-off year for citizenship.

Sarma said, "I have spoken to many people who are confident of their Indian citizenship and are prepared to prove it in court". When asked about the possibility of withdrawing cases in the Foreigners Tribunals, Sarma suggested that proceedings might need to be paused for a few months to allow people to apply for citizenship under CAA.