How did a declared foreigner get a passport? Questions Gauhati High Court

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court has asked the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to file affidavits in the Court by March 2, 2024, stating as to how a person declared a foreigner by an FT (Foreigners Tribunal) could get his passport renewed.

In 2016, the Hojai FT declared Ibrahim Ali a foreigner. Recently, Ibrahim Ali filed a writ petition (7194/2023) in the Gauhati Court challenging the FT’s order that declared him a foreigner. To corroborate his Indian citizenship, Ali produced his passport before the court.

During the hearing of the writ petition in the court of Justice Manas Kumar Pathak and Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi, the division bench observed that the FT declared Ibrahim Ali a foreigner in 2016, and he got his passport in 2012, which was to expire in 2022. However, even after the FT declared him a foreigner, Ali applied for the renewal of his passport in 2020, and in 2021, the authorities renewed his passport for a period of ten years, up to 2030. The Court observed that a person declared a foreigner in 2016 got his passport renewed in 2021, which shows that the passport office did not verify the documents on Ibrahim Ali properly. The bench opines that such incidents pose a threat to the security of the nation.

And hence, the Court has asked the MHA and the MEA to file their affidavits by tomorrow. The court will hear the writ petition on March 5, 2024.

According to sources, Ibrahim Ali applied online for a Tatkal passport. The documents required for a Talkal passport are voter ID, Aadhaar card, ration card, arms licence, PAN card, LPG bill, property documents, etc. The documents that Ali submitted to the passport office for Tatkal Passport might be forged ones.

According to sources, in Assam, such cases might be more, as only 30,101 of the 1.59 lakh declared foreigners have been deported so far. The declared foreigners might have been able to get such an important document through fraudulent means. 

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