Those whose cases are pending with the foreigners’ tribunals or have been declared foreigners will not be allowed to file appeals for inclusion of their names in the final list of National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on August 31 which excluded 1.9 million people, according to the Assam government’s standard operating procedure (SOP).
A senior official said on Monday that according to the SOP, a District Magistrate or his representative will have to produce original records, including documents submitted by the appellant during the NRC claims process and the relevant NRC orders to the tribunals within 30 days of receiving a notice from the foreigners’ tribunal.
According to the SOP, people can file an appeal once they receive the certified copies of their NRC rejection order on a designated portal which will allocate them a unique reference number. Once the appeals are submitted, they would be verified with the local district officials and a case number will be generated and sent to the appellant through a text message, the SOP says.
Subsequently, those excluded will have to submit a copy of the online appeal to one of the designated foreigners’ tribunals in the district, where they initially filed their NRC applications. The recent amendment to the Foreigners’ (Tribunal) Order 1964 provides for 120 days for filing of appeals.
{{/usCountry}}Subsequently, those excluded will have to submit a copy of the online appeal to one of the designated foreigners’ tribunals in the district, where they initially filed their NRC applications. The recent amendment to the Foreigners’ (Tribunal) Order 1964 provides for 120 days for filing of appeals.
{{/usCountry}}National Register of Citizens: All there is to know about citizenship test.
The SOP also prescribes that those who have not provided their biometric details during the claims process will have to do it when they submit the appeals. This information including biometric data, according to officials familiar with the exercise, would be feed into the database on suspected illegal immigrants that state government is building.
Since the appeals will be processed by a central cloud server, appellants from the same family who have traced their residence in Assam from a common ancestor would be mostly handled by the same foreigners’ tribunal.
Assam currently has 100 foreigners’ tribunals, each headed by a member, and is fast moving towards establishing 200 more in the coming weeks. “We have appointed 221 members including for the new FTs and have also finalized their locations in the entire state,” said Ashutosh Agnihotri, Commissioner and Secretary, Home and Political Department.