A new ray of relief and hope has emerged from the Supreme Court for five women fighting the legal battle for citizenship and identity in Assam. The Supreme Court of the country has given two weeks time to the Assam government to file its reply on the petitions challenging the orders declaring these women as foreigners.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta passed the order after the state government’s counsel sought time to file a counter affidavit.
Stay on deportation and story of pain
This is not just a matter of legal papers, but of those lives which are living under the shadow of uncertainty. Two of these five women are currently in the detention center waiting for their fate to be decided. Earlier, on June 5, the Supreme Court had agreed to hear these petitions and ordered to maintain the status quo on their deportation, which gave them immediate relief.
The Gauhati High Court had earlier upheld the decisions of the Foreigners Tribunal, in which these women had been declared illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Women have approached the Supreme Court against this stand of the High Court.
Demand for fair and logical process
During the hearing, the lawyers of the petitioners cited an important decision of the Supreme Court of July 13. In that decision, the court had clearly said that the process of determining the citizenship of any person should be completely fair. “The State has a legitimate right to ensure that no one obtains citizenship illegally, but the determination of citizenship status must always be through a fair, lawful and logical process.”
The Supreme Court had earlier asked tribunals to consider such cases afresh without any past bias. Now the court will hear the next hearing on this sensitive matter after two weeks, on which the future of these families depends.