SIRAJUL HOQUE Vs. STATE OF ASSAM & ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The present appeal raises an issue as to whether the appellant herein has been declared to be a foreigner incorrectly. By the Foreigner's Tribunal judgment dated 19.01.2017, after referring to some of the documents produced by the appellant, and after finding that there was a discrepancy in the name of the grandfather and the fact that the grandfather and the father later lived in different villages, the Tribunal declared the appellant to be a foreigner. The High Court dismissed the writ petition filed against the same judgment stating:

(3.) We have heard learned counsel for both sides extensively and have gone through the documents produced by the appellant ourselves. On a perusal of the same, we find that a number of documents have been relied upon by the appellant starting with a voters' list of his grandfather Kematullah in villge Sotobashjani. There is no doubt that the great grandfather's name Amtullah appears as Amtullah throughout the document. Equally, there is no doubt about the father's name which appears as Hakim Ali throughout. The only discrepancy found is that in some of the documents Kefatullah later becomes Kematullah. However, what is important to note is that his father's name Amtullah continues as Amtullah and the other family members associated continued as such. Also produced are NRC Registration details of the year 1971 of the grandfather who is noted to be Kefatullah in this document. Other voters lists are then produced where the letter F becomes the letter M with other family names remaining the same. In fact, the appellant has himself produced a document of 1981 from the Income Tax Department giving his Permanent Account Number. Apart from these documents, certain other later documents have also been produced including photo identity cards issued by the Election Commission of India and identity cards issued to his brother including voters lists in which the appellant's name appears.