Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said on Thursday that it is the within the domain of the legislature to carve out an appellate forum, where people who have been declared “foreigner” by Foreigners Tribunals and their names deleted from the Assam NRC list can seek relief.
The Bench led by Chief Justice Gogoi indicated through oral observations that the Supreme Court cannot be expected to carve out such an appellate forum using its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution. “The remedy you seek from this court is the remedy you should seek from the legislature. You have your elected representatives. If you are aggrieved, you can also move under Article 226 (of the Constitution) or go file a suit for a declaration that you are Indian citizens,” Chief Justice Gogoi observed.
The CJI’s oral remarks came in response to pleas by individual petitioners led by Abdul Kuddus that people trapped in no man’s land between the NRC list and Foreigners Tribunals should get a chance to appeal.
Reserves orders
The three-judge Bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, had specially convened to consider whether “judicial determination of a person being foreigner would stand superseded if the name of the same person is included in the draft/final NRC.” The Bench reserved the case for final orders.
The State of Assam and the Government of India have argued that a judicial declaration supersedes the “executive exercise” of the NRC list. That is, the tribunal’s finding that a person is a foreigner cannot be made redundant on the basis of the appearance of the person’s name in the NRC. “The person has exhausted his rights,” Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, for Assam, submitted.
Both the Centre and the State government refer to paragraph 3(2) of the Schedule of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules of 2003, by which the “judicial verdict would prevail and endure, notwithstanding the executive exercise of preparing NRC list.”
The Bench said the present law provides that the declaration that a person was a ‘foreigner’ by a tribunal was followed by the executive action of deportation.
Chance to appeal
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Sanjay Hegde, for the petitioners, argued that foreigners tribunals are basically quasi-judicial authorities in nature. There should be an opportunity for persons aggrieved by their decisions to appeal in a higher forum.
The hearing was centred on Mr. Sibal’s submission that “that if the name of a person included in the NRC is deleted on the ground that he was a foreigner or an illegal migrant, he would have a right of appeal or right to approach the appropriate forum, as the case may be...” He submitted that if the law has not provided for such a remedy of appeal, the apex court should carve it out in exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution.
