Wed 27 November 2019:
Amnesty has accused Indian authorities and courts of lack of oversight on the functioning of Foreigners Tribunals courts that have been accused of creating “havoc” in the northeastern state of Assam, where nearly two million people were excluded from a citizenship list in August.
“For the last 15 years, Foreigners Tribunals have wreaked havoc in Assam by arbitrarily denying people their citizenship. They have not been held accountable by the courts, the Government of India and the Government of Assam,” Amnesty International India said on Wednesday in a report titled “Designed to Exclude”.
The report alleges that the Foreigners Tribunals, quasi-judicial courts to decide on the citizenship of people, are “riddled with bias” and work in “arbitrary ways”.
“Holding governments accountable for the human rights abuses they commit has always been difficult. However, in this case, it is the judiciary that has aided the government institutions and Foreigners Tribunals in committing abuses with impunity,” said Aakar Patel, Head of Amnesty International India, in a statement.
On August 31, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) – a Supreme Court-monitored bureaucratic citizenship exercise – excluded 1.9 million people from its final citizenship list in Assam.
Activists have criticised NRC for anomalies and procedural flaws, with many cases where genuine Indian citizens, including former government officials, were excluded.
Those excluded from the NRC list have been given 120 days to appeal in the Foreigners Tribunals. They can move the High Court and the Supreme Court for redress.
‘Vested groups’
The Amnesty apart from other things has urged India to establish an appellate body in processes used to deprive people of their citizenship and ensure that a person is not deprived of their citizenship due to lack of documentation.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson, Nalin Kohli, refused to comment on the report saying, “I don’t have any knowledge of the report.”
GVL Narasimha Rao, another BJP spokesperson, defended the fairness of India’s courts.
“India’s Supreme Court and High Courts enjoy spotless image for their integrity, image and fairness,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Some vested groups which are seen as foreign agents are driven by dubious agenda. We don’t think it is worth our while to comment on their reports.”
Last week, the Hindu nationalist government led by the BJP said it will implement nationwide NRC to identify undocumented immigrants.
Assam will have to through the process again, raising questions over the fate of NRC list that was prepared after decades of bureaucratic exercise.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF, has described NRC in Assam as a “tool to target religious minorities, and, in particular, render Indian Muslims stateless.”
In July this year, the BJP government asked all states and union territories to set up at least one detention centre for undocumented immigrants.
“If the Foreigners Tribunals replicate their functioning across the country, then we will probably witness one of the largest process of arbitrarily deprivation of nationality in the world,” said Patel.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
