200 Additional Foreigners Tribunals (AFTs) To Come Up In Eight Districts

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The State government has decided to set up the 200 Additional Foreigners Tribunals (AFTs) in eight districts (instead of the earlier decided six) while the Home and Political Department will start giving recruitment to the selected Members (Judges) of the Additional FTs immediately after getting the notification from the Gauhati High Court. All the Additional FTs will become functional from September this year. After the 200 Additional FTs start functioning, the total number of Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) will go up to 300.

Sources informed The Sentinel that the High Court, after carrying out interviews of the applied candidates, has selected 227 Members (Judges) for the Additional FTs and also shortlisted the ‘Waiting List” of another 50 candidates. Meanwhile, officials of the Home and Political department have been carrying out spot inspections of the buildings from where the Additional FTs would be functioning. There will be one Member and at least 10 employees in each Additional FT. The Assam Police Recruitment Board is also carrying out the selection process of about 2,000 staff for the new FTs. Further, it is proposed that a two-day orientation programme for the newly appointed Members would be conducted before the Members report for duty.

The Members will be initially appointed for a period of one year “which may be extended from time-to- time on need basis, subject to their attainment of maximum age fixed at 67 years.”

Of the eight districts identified to set up the Additional FTs, Kamrup (M) will have the maximum number of 67 Additional FTs. In Guwahati, the Additional FTs will come up at Boragaon and Azara. Among the other districts, 39 Additional FTs will come up in Nagaon; 31 in Jorhat; 21 in Tezpur; 20 in Silchar; 10 in Dhubri, seven in Kokrajhar; and five in Bongaigaon (earlier 22 were to be set up there).

The role of the FTs will be crucial in the post-publication phase of the final NRC (National Register of Citizens). Names of people whose names will not figure in the final NRC will be referred to the FTs. The FT Members after the hearings and close scrutiny of the relevant documents of the concerned persons, will have to deliver the opinions (orders) as to whether the persons are Indians or foreigners.

At present, Assam has 100 Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) for the detection of foreigners. To tackle the large number of cases that are likely to crop up in the post-publication phase of the NRC, the Assam government had moved the Ministry of Home affairs (MHA) for the setting up of 1,000 Additional FTs. However, the MHA approved the establishment of 400 Additional FTs. Of these, 200 are to be set up in the first phase and the remaining ones in the second phase. Altogether 2,07,311 cases are pending at the FTs till March 31, 2019. Udalguri 1 FT has the highest number of 8,119 pending cases.

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