- The Supreme Court stayed deportation of four Assam women declared foreigners by tribunals
- The court ordered no coercive action until hearing petitions by the women
- Petitioner Sarbhanu Begum was detained over minor spelling discrepancies in citizenship documents
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the deportation of four women from Assam, who had been declared foreigners by Foreigners' Tribunals, directing that no coercive action should be taken against them until their cases are heard.
A vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and V Mohana ordered status quo on the cases and issued notices to the Centre, the Assam government and the Election Commission of India on petitions filed by Basiran Nessa, Saleha Khatun, Nureza Begum and Sarbhanu Begum.
The four petitioners had unsuccessfully challenged orders of Foreigners' Tribunals before the Gauhati High Court, which upheld the findings declaring them foreigners. The Supreme Court made it clear that no deportation would take place until it hears the matter.
One of the petitioners Sarbhanu Begum, around 50 years old, has approached the Supreme Court, claiming she is an impoverished and illiterate domestic worker who has been detained in the Goalpara Detention Centre after being declared a foreigner, a finding later upheld by the Gauhati High Court. She claimed the decision was taken on the basis of a spelling mismatch of her name in her documents.
According to her plea, she has been deprived of her liberty and separated from her family despite substantial evidence supporting her claim to Indian citizenship.
The petition describes the findings against her as "ex facie perverse" and excessively technical. She was detained on March 2.
Sarbhanu Begum states that she is the daughter of late Mia Hussain, whose name appeared in pre-1971 electoral records and National Register of Citizens (NRC) legacy data of Barkur village in Assam's Darrang district.
The plea says she produced NRC legacy records, voter lists, Gaonburah and Gaon Panchayat certificates, family electoral documents, and testimony from independent witnesses, including her brother and villagers, to establish continuity of residence and family lineage.
However, the Foreigners' Tribunal allegedly rejected her claim largely over minor discrepancies in the spelling and recording of names in official documents, including variations such as "Sarbhanu/Sorbhanu" and similar nomenclature differences.
The petition argues that the tribunal ignored settled legal principles that minor discrepancies in rural electoral records cannot outweigh substantive evidence of citizenship.
It further contends that the tribunal wrongly discarded her linkage certificates because the issuing authorities were not examined, despite her testimony remaining unrebutted and being corroborated by independent witnesses. The plea argues that these errors led to her wrongful declaration as a foreigner and subsequent detention.
Another petitioner, 50-year-old Saleha Khatun, has also been lodged in the Goalpara Detention Centre since March 2, after a Foreigners' Tribunal in Darrang district declared her a foreigner, a decision later affirmed by the Gauhati High Court.
Her plea before the Supreme Court also says that she is an "impoverished, illiterate woman" who has been deprived of her liberty despite what she describes as overwhelming evidence establishing her Indian citizenship.
Saleha's petition states that she is the daughter of Ahsan Ali and late Korpuljan, whose names appeared in pre-1971 electoral records and NRC legacy data of Nagabandha village in Assam's Nagaon district.
The plea says she consistently maintained before authorities that she was their daughter and produced documentary and oral evidence to establish her lineage and citizenship status.
Among the documents submitted before the Foreigners' Tribunal were NRC legacy records, voter lists, Gaonburah and Gaon Panchayat certificates, family electoral records and testimony from her sister, the petition states.
However, the tribunal, in its December 13, 2018 order, rejected her claim, allegedly citing discrepancies in family particulars, age and other details.
The petition argues that the tribunal placed undue emphasis on "trivial and explainable discrepancies" and ignored material evidence supporting her citizenship claim.
It further contends that linkage certificates submitted by Saleha Khatun were discarded merely because the issuing authorities were not examined, despite corroborative oral testimony and independent witness statements.
The plea notes that such linkage certificates are often crucial for married women who relocate after marriage and may not have extensive documentary records in their natal homes.
After the tribunal's order, Saleha Khatun approached the Gauhati High Court, arguing that the evidence establishing her pre-1971 ancestry had not been properly appreciated. However, the High Court dismissed her petition on December 9, 2025, and upheld the tribunal's findings.
Before the Supreme Court, Saleha Khatun has argued that the case concerns one of the most fundamental rights - the right to citizenship and the protections flowing from it.
The petition warns that without intervention from the top court, she faces the "grave and irreversible consequence" of being declared a foreigner in her own homeland and losing constitutional and legal protections available to Indian citizens.
The matter will now be heard by the Supreme Court after responses are filed by the Centre, the Assam government and the Election Commission.
