STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The state government has finally notified discontinuation of services of the Members of the 200 appellate Foreigners Tribunals (FT).
The Political (B) Department of the state government issued a Notification in this regard on Friday.
The Notification states that the Governor of Assam has conveyed approval for "forfeiture of services of the Members of additional 200 appellate Foreigners Tribunals (who are presently attached to the existing Foreigners Tribunals) with effect from September 23, 2022 onwards."
The Notification further states: "The utilization of services of the Members along with the 2,000 posts of Ministerial staff in 200 appellate Foreigners Tribunals will be considered as and when the NRC (National Register of Citizens) gets notified."
It may be recalled that the state government, in consultation with the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs), had formed 200 appellate FTs after the publication of the final NRC in 2019 to dispose of the appeals of the NRC (National Register of Citizens)-rejected people. Since the NRC authority has not issued NRC rejection letters to the ineligible NRC applicants so far, the government had to attach the 200 appellate FT Members to the existing 100 regular FTs to dispose of the pending cases. The additional FT Members have been disposing of the pending cases in the regular FTs since then.
However, the state government last month decided to discontinue the services of the 200 appellate FTs till the authorities concerned issue NRC rejection letters.
The Members of the 200 appellate Foreigners Tribunals were selected by a committee of the Gauhati High Court. Significantly, the 2,000 ministerial employees were selected by the state government, but they were not given appointment.
In view of the Notification mentioning that the forfeiture of services would be effective from September 23 last onwards, a question arises regarding the validity of opinions on citizenship matters given by the members of the 200 appellate Foreigners Tribunals on or after September 23 in various cases in the existing 100 FTs.
It may be mentioned that the AASU (All Assam Students' Union) had recently said that the government should continue the services of 200 appellate Foreigners Tribunal members in the interest of speedy disposal of pending cases in the existing 100 FTs. The number of such cases is more than one lakh at present.
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