Assam woman declared foreigner for 6 years, now declared Indian

Earlier, the woman failed to prove that she and her father were born in India and resided in Indian territory prior to 1971

By Bikram Sarkar

A woman from Assam’s Cachar district who was declared foreigner by Foreigners Tribunal-3 in Silchar 6 years ago for name mismatch in multiple voters’ lists, was recently declared an Indian citizen based on circumstantial evidence.

50-year-old Dulubi Bibi, who hails from Udharbond area in Cachar was declared an illegal migrant from Bangladesh by the member of Foreigners Tribunal-3 of Silchar on March 20, 2017, during the hearing of a 1998 case under the Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunals Act (which was later re-registered under Foreigners Tribunals Act in 2015).

The court found that there were mismatches in her father’s and grandfather’s names on several voter lists and that her name appeared as Dulubi Bibi and Dulabjan Begum. She also failed to prove that she and her father were born in India and resided in Indian territory prior to 1971.

The Foreigners Tribunal-3 also ordered the police to arrest Dulubi Bibi and keep her under detention until she is sent back to Bangladesh.

Following the order, Police arrested her on April 18, 2018, and pushed her to Detention Camp in Silchar.

Later she was released from the Detention centre in April 2020 on bail following a Supreme Court direction and in May 2023, she challenged the 2017 Foreigners’ Tribunal-3 order in Guwahati High Court.

The District Legal Service Authority (DLSA), Cachar provided her with free legal support and appointed advocate Mahitosh Das as her lawyer. Later, the High Court ordered the member of Foreigners Tribunal-3 to hear the case again.

During the Foreigners Tribunal-3’s hearings, Bibi had adequate proof of her relationship with her grandfather and father. The FT-3 member was persuaded by the evidence presented to him and the argument placed before him and declared her as Indian citizen, Das said.

BK Talukdar, Member FT-3 in Silchar who declared Bibi an illegal migrant in 2017, declared her an Indian citizen on Wednesday. Bibi received the official order copy from FT-3 on Wednesday afternoon.

“According to the report submitted by the superintendent of police (B) with related documents including copies of NRC details of 1966, printed voters list of 1993, Gaon Panchayat Certificate, Elector Voter Identify Card and an affidavit stating that the OP Dulabjan Begum daughter of Sirai Uddin Laskar, Dulabjan Begum daughter of Sirai Mia and Dulabjan Bibi are one and the same person,” wrote Talukdar.

Dulubi Bibi said, “I am a Muslim woman and my family is conservative. I used to work as a cook before going to jail. I’m not sure my husband will accept me or I’ll get any works now. Will the government take responsibility of this damage.”

Social activist from Silchar, Kamal Chakrabarty who is continuously fighting for many such people who were sentenced illegal citizens and sent to detention camps said, “After six years, she has been declared Indian based on Circumstantial evidences, which means the court considered the local witnesses admissible. If this was done back in 2017, she wouldn’t have had to suffer this much.”

Edited by Lipika Roy

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