2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags: Foreigners Tribunals, NRC

FOREIGNERS TRIBUNALS

For: Mains

Topic covers: Foreigners Tribunals, New recommendations and powers, NRC

News Flash

The Ministry of Home Affairs has amended the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, and has empowered district magistrates in all States and Union Territories to set up tribunals to decide whether a person staying illegally in India is a foreigner or not.

Opportunity will also be given to those who haven’t filed claims by referring their cases to the Tribunals. Fresh summons will be issued to them to prove their citizenship.

Highlights

With Assam’s National Register of Citizens as the backdrop, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has laid out specific guidelines to detect, detain and deport foreign nationals staying illegally across the country.
Recently, the MHA sanctioned around 1,000 Tribunals to be set up in Assam in the wake of publication of the final NRC by July 31.
The amended Foreigners (Tribunal) Order, 2019 also empowers individuals to approach the Tribunals.

Centre’s domain

Earlier, such powers to constitute tribunals vested with the Centre only.
The tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies, unique to Assam, to determine if a person staying illegally is a “foreigner” or not.
In other parts, once a ‘foreigner’ has been apprehended by the police for staying illegally, he or she is produced before the local court under the Passport Act, 1920, or the Foreigners Act, 1946, with the punishment ranging from imprisonment of three months to eight years.
Once the accused have completed the sentence, the court orders their deportation, and they are moved to detention centres till the country of origin accepts them.

Background

As per directions of the Supreme Court, the Registrar General of India (RGI) published the final draft list of NRC on July 30 last year to segregate Indian citizens living in Assam from those who had illegally entered the State from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971.

Nearly 40 lakh people were excluded from Assam’s final draft published last year. The NRC is a fallout of the Assam Accord, 1985. As many as 36 lakh of those excluded have filed claims against the exclusion, while four lakh residents haven’t applied.

Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983

The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal ) (IMDT) Act was an Act of the Parliament of India enacted in 1983 by the Indira Gandhi government.
It described the procedures to detect illegal immigrants (from Bangladesh) and expel them from Assam.
The Act was pushed through mainly on the grounds that it provided special protections against undue harassment to the “minorities” affected by the Assam Agitation. It was applicable to the state of Assam only whereas in other states, detection of foreigners is done under The Foreigners Act, 1946.

Must Read: Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964

Source: The Hindu

You can follow us on LinkedIn and for more updates related to UPSC IAS Preparation, Like our Facebook Page and subscribe our Diligent IAS Youtube Channel