NAZIR UDDIN Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is yet another case of extending protective hands to the declared foreigners (illegal Bangladeshi migrants) by the State Govt, by not initiating and completing the required action, which it is bound to do under the provisions of the Citizenship Act and the Rules framed thereunder. As a consequence thereof, the 11 petitioners, namely, (1) Nazir Uddin, (2) Afia Begum, (3) Badral Haque, (4) Aklas Ali, (5) Kamrul Haque, (6) Siri Begum, (7) Bibijan Bibi, (8) Abdul Sahid, (9) Abdul Rahman, (10) Abdul Malik and (11) Fatima, have continued to defy their registration with the Registering authority, which is required to be done, they being foreigners within the stream of 1966-71. Not only that their names were also not deleted from the voter list as is required to be done from the date of the declaration, which in the instant case are dated 12.11.2002 and 20.8.2002, disentitling them to cast votes. As per the requirement of the provisions of the aforesaid acts and the rules framed there under, the declared foreigner within the stream of 1966-71 is required to register himself with the Registering authority within one month of the declaration by the Foreigners Tribunal, extendable by 60 days, but in the instant case, the petitioners not only have not registered themselves with the Registering Authority for all these years (by now almost 11 years), but their names were also not deleted from the voter lists till filing of the writ petition in 2009. It is only upon noticing the aforesaid fact when this Court directed the State Govt, to delete their names from the voter lists, their names have been deleted. Thus, the State Govt, of its own did not delete the names of the petitioners for all these years.

(2.) As was disclosed during the course of hearing of the writ petitions, as against the aforesaid legal provisions of not being able to cast votes by the foreigners within the stream of 1966-71 for 10(ten) years, the petitioners participated in all the elections, be it Parliamentary, Assembly and Panchayat and thus contributed towards electing people's representatives to the said institutions. It is only in Assam, such thing can happen in which not only the constitutional mandates are violated by not taking the required action in the matter of detection and deportation of foreign nationals but they are also extended with the protective hands to remain in Assam (India) with all rights of a citizen including the voting rights.

(3.) Both the writ petitions involving the above named 11 foreigners (illegal Bangladeshi migrants) having raised the same issue, have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment and order. The issue is, as to whether the Writ Court can issue any direction to the Registering Authority to register the petitioners as illegal Bangladeshi migrants within the stream of 1966-71 after expiry of long 7(seven) years (by now almost 11 years) as against the stipulated period of limitation of 30 (thirty) days, which is extendable by another '60(sixty) days by the Registering Authority.