GUWAHATI, India, Dec. 19 -- Gauhati High Court issued the following order on Nov. 19:

1. The petitioner, Omarjan Bibi @Amartan Nessa @ Begum is aggrieved by the judgment and order dated 12.11.2018, passed by the learned Member, Foreigner's Tribunal, No. 3, Nalbari in FT Case No. 189/2018, arising out of [IM(D)T] Case No. 619/2002.

2. It is submitted that the learned Tribunal has erroneously held the petitioner to be a foreigner only by the certificate issued by the Gaon Panchayat Secretary. It is further submitted that the petitioner exhibited voters list of 1966,1970,1985,1997,2005 and 2014, but the voters list reflecting the petitioner's grandparents have not been taken into consideration which could have proved the lineage of the petitioner with her grandparents. The voters lists figuring the names of her grandparents have been exhibited. Land documents have also been exhibited and the land document dates back to 1947/1948 but this has also been erroneously discarded by the learned Tribunal.

3. It is further submitted that the learned Tribunal heavily relied on the two documents marked as Exhibits-6 & 7 and ignored the documents which were marked as Exhibits-1,2,3,4 & 5. A close scrutiny of the opinion of the Tribunal reveals that the prime documents relied on by the petitioner have not been taken into consideration. Without any discussions on these important documents marked as Exhibits-1,2,3,4 & 5, the petitioners case was dismissed. These documents have not been carefully scrutinized and analyzed and these documents easily proves the citizenship of the petitioner.

4. Per contra, learned standing counsel for the FT and Border Matters, Mr. G. Sharma laid stress in his argument that the learned Tribunal did not find it necessary to discuss the Exhibits-1,2,3,4 & 5, as these exhibits will not help improve the petitioner's case. The petitioner failed to establish her linkage with her projected parents and grandparents and thus the opinion impugned by the petitioner does not require any interference.

5. Heard Mr. A. R. Sikdar, learned counsel for the petitioner; Ms. R. Devi, learned CGC, Mr. G. Sharma, learned standing counsel for the FT and Border matters, Mr. N. Kalita, learned standing counsel appearing on behalf of Mr. A. I. Ali, learned standing counsel for the ECI and Mr. H. K. Hazarika, learned Junior Govt. Advocate for the respondents.

6. We have given a thoughtful consideration to the submissions at the bar. At first blush, the decision of the learned Tribunal clearly indicates that the Tribunal has decided the case on the basis of two documents marked as Exhibits- 6 & 7. The validity of these documents as evidence has been elaborately discussed by the Tribunal and reasons have been assigned while dismissing the other documents marked as Exhibits-1,2,3,4 & 5.

7. It has been held by the learned Tribunal that the petitioner has failed to discharge her burden of proof as envisaged under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946. It was observed by the Tribunal that the petitioner has deposed that her age was 34 years on 18.08.2018. Exhibit-7 reveals that the date of birth of Amartan Nessa @Begum was 01.05.1985. On perusal of Exhibit- 8, it was found that in the year 2015, petitioner was 20 years old and her marriage was performed on 20.07.2002, which shows that she was born in the year 1995 and her marriage was performed while she was 7 years old. The Tribunal has observed that Exhibit-6 was issued by the witness, OPW-3, Secretary of Gaon Panchayat, who has deposed that they have not maintained any register in respect of issuance of certificates and at the time of issuance of certificate, they verified the certificate issued by the village Headman.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/ecourtindiaHC/cases/display_pdf.php?filename=%2FE3WiyNUWFIaR1oBGE62WrWqBK83TPFpsltOotjRZppdHZbF0R3Asm79k4AuMJeE&caseno=WP(C)/624/2019&cCode=1&cino=GAHC010017622019&state_code=6&appFlag=)

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