E-Paper
Assam: After 3-year legal battle, 73-year-old woman proves citizenship
Seje Bala Ghosh said her father was a freedom fighter and questioning her citizenship was an insult to her father’s sacrifices
A 73-year-old woman, daughter of a freedom fighter, in Assam’s Bongaigaon district, Seje Bala Ghosh, received a notice from a foreigners’ tribunal (FT) in March 2020 and after three years of legal battle, she has proven that she is not an illegal migrant from Bangladesh.
After receiving a copy of the order earlier this week, Ghosh said that questioning her citizenship was an insult to her father’s sacrifices and just declaring her as Indian is not enough. However, she didn’t ask for anything specific.
Ghosh received the copy from FT in Bongaigaon on November 20 and on Friday she told HT that she is still feeling humiliated.
“My father was a freedom fighter. He was a close associate of Chandra Shekhar Azad Ji and sacrificed a lot for this country’s freedom. But after seven decades of independence, his daughter was called an illegal migrant, this is a shame,” she said.
Seje Bala lives alone at her house in Bongaigaon’s Salbagan village and she is a devotee of Lord Krishna. She said, “May be this was written in my destiny but those who caused this humiliation to my dignity, will pay for this. My Krishna is watching everything.”
According to her, a team of police came to her house with a notice from FT in March 2020, just before the lockdown started. “I couldn’t read it and I asked the police to tell me what my crime is. They said, the court (FT) believes that I am an illegal migrant from Bangladesh and I have to appear before the court,” she said.
According to advocate Tanya Laskar, there are two ways by which FTs issue notices- based on electoral role revision by election officers and reports by border branch of the police.
“When the election officers find irregularities in names and details of voters, they put D mark at the list and send it to police. In other method, the border branch of police under Section 3 of the Foreigners Act, sends list of doubtful citizens to the FT,” she said.
According to her, the FT after receiving the list of doubtful citizens, asks the police to investigate and when police say that the persons under doubt failed to produce proper documents that can prove their Indian citizenship, FT issues notice to those persons and asks them to appear before the trials.
“The fact is, in most of the cases, police submit reports without visiting the doubtful person’s house and they also do not serve the notices properly. As a result, FT has declared many original Indians illegal migrants, who later proved their identity in higher courts,” she said.
During the first lockdown in 2020, members of Assam-based NGO, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) reached out to her and started providing legal support.
They appointed an advocate, named Dewan Abdur Rahim, to present Seje Bala’s case at the tribunal. Rahim said that documents show that Seje Bala’s father, Digendra Ch Ghosh and Barada Bala Ghosh came to India in 1947 due to religious persecution in the then East Pakistan and settled in Assam.
Seje Bala was born in 1951 at Balogara village in Mangaldoi district and in the same year her father’s name appeared in the National Register of Citizens (NRC). A passport was issued in 1954 and his name appeared in the voters’ list of 1958 and several upcoming years, according to the advocate.
He said that they presented 13 valid documents showing that Seje Bala’s family was in Assam before 1951. “With the documents related to individual identities of Digendra Ch Ghosh and Seje Bala, we also submitted documents to establish their relationship (as father and daughter). All the documents were found valid in FT’s verification,” he said.
Seje Bala appeared before the FT in 2021 for the first time but before that she broke her left leg in an accident and due to this she was taken in a wheelchair. After several hearings, the FT on November 4, this year, gave its opinion and declared that she is not a foreigner.
The FT observed that Seje Bala’s family moved to India in 1947 and stayed here. FT’s members mentioned that the documents are valid and show that her father’s name was recorded in the Refugee Registration certificate, Passport, NRC of 1951 and voter list of 1958. Her mother’s name is recorded in the Donation Slip of 1962 and voter list of 1966 in Mangaldoi.
Seje Bala’s name appeared in the voters’ lists of 1989, 1997, 2005, 2011 and 2020 in Bongaigaon. She was also given OBC certificate and ration card etc. She submitted a relationship certificate (with her father Digendra Ch Ghosh) issued by Chairman of Bongaigaon Municipal Board in 1994 and the FT considered this as a valid document.
According to the members of CJP, she cried after getting a copy of the FT’s order in her hands.
“She said that she didn’t deserve this insult. She is angry with the fact that the FT called her Bangladeshi. But she didn’t want anyone to apologise, instead, she said that Bhagwan (almighty) will give her justice,” said the state incharge of CJP, Nanda Ghosh.
Nanda said that Seje Bala’s son died a few years ago and the other family members have left her. She stays at her house alone and the neighbours are looking after her. A nephew, named Gopal Ghosh helps her as well, according to him.
