Guwahati: The Assam government will request the Gauhati High Court to review the functioning of foreign tribunals (FTs) of the state, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma informed the state assembly on the last day of the budget session on Monday.
Replying to a supplementary question from Congress member Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, Sarma said that the government will submit such a request to the chief justice of the Gauhati High Court soon after the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
The chief minister said the rule of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 is yet to be formulated. “Once the rules are formulated, the implementation of the act will be started. Anyway, we will not allow any national who entered Assam after 2014, to include in the citizenship list. 94 lakh people entered Assam after 1971.”
Earlier, replying to a starred question from AIUDF member Karimuddin Barbhuyan, the chief minister said: “Till December 31, 2023, cases registered in the FTs against 2,44.144 D-voters. Of them, 1,49,732 cases have been disposed and two have been sent back to their country. Now, 94,412 cases are pending for disposal in the FTs.”
Sarma said the government has withdrawn all cases from FT against Gorkha nationals as per clauses of the India-Nepal Treaty.
“According to the treaty, both India and Nepal governments agree to grant, on a reciprocal basis, to the nationals of one country in the territories of the other the same privileges in the matter of residence, ownership of property, participation in trade and commerce, movement and other privileges of a similar nature. So there is no question of registering a case against a Gorkha in the FT,” the chief minister said.
Barbhuyan referred to the letter of Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, who wrote a letter to the Union home minister for the disposal of cases against Gorkha nationals from the FTs.