GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court has upheld a Foreigners Tribunal’s decision declaring an Assam resident a foreigner, ruling that the 15 documents and oral testimony produced by him were either legally inadmissible or insufficient to establish Indian citizenship. A Division Bench of Justices Kalyan Rai Surana and Shamima Jahan dismissed the writ petition filed by the daily wage labourer, holding that he failed to discharge his burden of proof as required under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946.

The petitioner, born in 1988 and living in a rented house in Guwahati, had submitted computer-generated copies of the 1951 National Register of Citizens (NRC) featuring his family members, certified electoral rolls from 1996 to 2017, a 1973 land deed, a 2017 school certificate, a PAN card, and an Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC).

The petitioner argued that continuous river erosion forced his family to shift across multiple locations like Charai Khasara, Dhobakura, Ghugudoba, and Hashdoba, and both he and his father deposed before the tribunal to clear their lineage.

However, the High Court agreed with the tribunal’s findings that the computer-generated 1951 NRC documents lacked the mandatory digital certificate required under Section 65B of the Evidence Act, rendering them invalid. Furthermore, the school certificate was rejected as neither the headmaster nor the admission register was produced, and the 1973 land deed failed to establish succession links to the petitioner’s father. The court reiterated that PAN cards and EPIC are well-settled to not be proofs of citizenship. Pointing out significant age mismatches and gaps in the voter lists across different locations, the bench ruled that oral testimonies cannot replace document records and found no error in the tribunal’s deportation order.

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