Amid 'push back' of illegal migrants, Foreigner Tribunal members in Assam not getting salaries

Guwahati: Amid a drive to detain illegal migrants from Bangladesh in several states and the "push back" to the neighbouring nation, members of the Foreigner Tribunals, the quasi-judicial bodies disposing of such cases in Assam, have not been paid their salaries since April.

This came to light during a hearing on Tuesday in Gauhati High Court, which has been monitoring the activities of the tribunals since 2015.

There are 100 such tribunals and were set up under the Foreigners Act 1946, only for Assam, a state grappling with the vexed problem of illegal migration from neighbouring Bangladesh.

During the hearing, D Majumdar, senior additional advocate general, informed the high court that the salaries of the members of the tribunals could not be disbursed due to non-receipt of necessary approval from the Union Finance Ministry.

Mazumdar informed the court that although the Union Home Ministry approved the extension of tenure of the existing members of the tribunals, the salaries cannot be disbursed by the state government without approval of the finance ministry.

"The learned members of the Foreigners Tribunals are full-time salaried employees who are entirely dependent on their monthly salary for survival. Therefore, if the salary of the members is withheld for no valid reason, then it is undoubtedly going to cause serious injury to the interest of the members of the Foreigners Tribunals, thus having a potentially adverse bearing on the performance of their regular duty," Justice Suman Shyam of Gauhati High Court said in an order on Tuesday.

The order said Majumdar informed the court that the Assam government had submitted to the Centre on May 7 seeking the necessary approval but the same has still remained pending. "The learned Additional Advocate General could not, however, appraise this court as to the reason for the delay in receiving the approval from the Union Finance Ministry."

Haphazard records

During hearing of a separate petition on Tuesday, which was filed against an order of a tribunal, the high court observed that records of the tribunals were placed in "haphazard" manner and asked the state government to consider providing training to the members and superintendents of the Foreigner Tribunals.

The FTs

The Tribunals were set up only for Assam under the Foreigner (Tribunal) Order 1964 as per provision in Foreigners Act 1946. Judges, present or former, and lawyers are appointed as members of such tribunals. The cases are referred to such tribunals by the border branch of the state police and those facing the charge of being illegal migrants have to prove their Indian citizenship by providing necessary documents, failing which they were declared foreigners and detained for deportation.

Those declared foreigners, however, are entitled to challenge the orders in the Gauhati High Court and the Supreme Court. The FTs consider March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for detection of foreigners in Assam, which was agreed following the Assam Accord in 1985.

Since May, more than 300 'declared foreigners' have been pushed back from Assam to Bangladesh and the drive is still on. Several such "illegal migrants", who were caught in several other BJP-ruled states were also similarly pushed back through the Indo-Bangladesh borders in Bengal, Assam and Tripura.

Declared foreigners by FTs: 1,59,353 till December 2023.

Deported: (mainly Bangladeshis): 3,100 (between 2001-2023)

Cases pending in tribunals: 96,149.