Latest news with #GauhatiHC
Time of India
10-08-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
CJI Gavai inaugurates Gauhati HC's new Itanagar bench
Itanagar: The new building of the Gauhati high court's Itanagar permanent bench was officially inaugurated by CJI BR Gavai on Sunday. The ceremony was attended by a host of dignitaries, including CM Pema Khandu, Union minister for Parliamentary affairs Kiren Rijiju, Union MoS for law and justice Arjun Ram Meghwal, Gauhati HC Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar and several judges from both the Supreme Court and the high court. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now CJI Gavai described the inauguration as a "historic step" towards making justice more accessible and affordable for the people of Arunachal Pradesh. He advocated for decentralization of judicial services and said justice must be delivered at people's doorsteps, emphasizing that judiciary, legislature and executive were meant to serve all citizens, not just a privileged few. In his address, he lauded the cultural richness of Arunachal Pradesh, home to 26 major tribes and over 100 sub-tribes, and stressed the constitutional duty to preserve and conserve traditions, while pursuing national progress. CM Khandu highlighted the new state-of-the-art facility, spanning over 19,000 square meters and built at a cost of nearly Rs 250 crore, labelling it as a "symbol of hope, accessibility and unwavering pursuit of justice."He provided an update on judicial infrastructure in the state, noting that Arunachal Pradesh had expanded from just two courts in 2016 to 33 functional courts, with eight new courts added recently and 463 new posts created in the district judiciary.
Time of India
08-08-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Typos, technicalities used to deny citizenship claims in Assam: Report
Even as citizenship issues are being raised in many parts of the country, a new report questions the legal process followed by the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) and Gauhati high court in declaring 1.6 lakh people as "foreigners" in Assam. According to the report, citizenship was denied on the basis of minor spelling errors and confusion between honorific titles and actual names, while credible oral testimony was dismissed. The findings were based on an analysis of over 1,200 Gauhati HC orders, key Supreme Court judgments, orders of the FTs, and extensive interviews with lawyers and litigants. Among the cases cited are: Barpeta resident Rahman Ali submitted documents for citizenship in 2012, listing his father's name as Khurshed Ali. His claim was rejected a year later with the authorities ruling that this was a discrepancy as his father's name registered as Furshed Ali in the 1965 and 1970 voter rolls, even though it was correctly registered as Khurshed in 1989, 1997 and 2010. Maharjan Nessa's uncle's testimony was dismissed in 2019 because he was unaware of when her father had purchased land in Gobardhana village in Baksa district, a detail irrelevant to her citizenship status. Ibrahim Ali's petition was denied because his father's name appeared as 'Late Nurul' in the 1989 voter roll and 'Nurul Islam' in the 1965 and 1970 voter rolls for Toktoki village in Nagaon district. Besides such rejections, there are over 85,000 pending cases. The FTs are expected to hear a million appeals from those excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The report titled 'Unmaking Citizens: The Architecture of Rights Violations and Exclusion in India's Citizenship Trials' by the National Law School of India University and Queen Mary University of London describes this as a "burgeoning crisis". It argues that the FTs - rather than being flawed exceptions-have become routine instruments of exclusion. The report comes at a time when Parliament has enacted the new Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025. In this context, the report calls for an urgent, fundamental rethinking of the legal structures governing citizenship in India, calling the current system not just broken, but actively unjust. "Even though the citizenship verification process has ostensibly been carried out under the cover of law and sometimes even under court supervision, our report shows that it fails to align with core constitutional and legal principles," says Mohsin Alam Bhat, law professor at Queen Mary University and co-author of the report. "People are asked to produce unreasonable documentation. Worse, the system is designed to reject even the documentary and oral evidence they do manage to provide. " Some of the reasons for denying citizenship are against settled law, the report says. For instance, FTs and the Gauhati HC routinely rejected crucial official documents, such as gram panchayat certificates and voter rolls, over minor formatting flaws, inconsistencies in ink color, or the absence of details like specific govt headers. Slight variations in a person's name, title, or age became grounds for denial, even though such inconsistencies are common in rural records. Even when credible witnesses, including family members with direct knowledge, testified to a person's citizenship or familial relationships, their statements were often dismissed just because they could not recall details like the precise year a family moved to a village, the date of a marriage, or a birth date. Additionally, FTs and the HC have routinely dismissed post-1971 documents as "irrelevant" or "not proof of citizenship". This led to documents like Aadhaar, PAN cards, and ration cards, which could establish continuous residence or familial ties, being summarily rejected. Another challenge has been the steadily weakening qualifications for FT members. In 2011, only retired officials of the judicial service were eligible. By 2015, advocates who had 10 years of experience could be appointed. In 2019, this was further broadened to include civil servants and lawyers with only seven years of experience. The report argues that the courts have not treated these procedural violations as errors of law serious enough to invalidate FT proceedings. Bhat says, "The high court has adopted the same narrow approach to evidence as the tribunals, rejecting testimony and documents for minor, technical discrepancies without considering them in totality, as settled evidentiary practice would require."
Hindustan Times
07-08-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Gauhati HC directs those facing eviction from Golaghat forests to submit land rights proof
Guwahati, The Gauhati High Court has directed those facing eviction from Doyang and South Nambar forests in Assam's Golaghat district to submit within 10 days proof of land rights or vacate the land. Gauhati HC directs those facing eviction from Golaghat forests to submit land rights proof Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar, hearing the petition of 74 people claiming they have been in possession of the land since the time of their forefathers, also directed the state advocate general to submit an affidavit by a forest officer stating that the appellants have been residing in the reserved forest area without any entitlement and are liable to be evicted forthwith. The petitioners challenged the issuance of notices by the district authority asking them to vacate their land within seven days, alleging that such action of the respondents is in contravention of certain provisions of the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886 and the Assam Land Policy, 2019 as also the guidelines of the Supreme Court's order of December 13, 2024. A group of 59 people and another group of about 15 people had filed two separate petitions and both the appeals were taken up together for hearing since the issues involved in these appeals are identical and related to the eviction of encroachers from reserved forest areas. The claim of the petitioners was that they have been in possession of the land in question since the time of their forefathers and such notices have been served upon them without any specific demarcation as to whether the land in question, said to be in illegal occupation of the appellants/writ petitioners, is a revenue or forest land. The contention of the appellants in these appeals is that no procedure has been followed for their eviction from their houses, which had been allocated to them under some scheme of the government in the past. The court observed that no documentary evidence had been submitted to support these claims. The state advocate general, however, contested the petitioners' submission and stated that the appellants are encroachers in the reserve forests, namely, Doyang and South Nambar reserve forests. He submitted that after the notification converting the forests to reserved forests and its proclamation by the officer concerned, any non-forest activity in reserved forests would be a criminal offence for which a penalty has been provided under the Assam Forest Regulation, 1891. He further submitted that approximately 29 lakh bighas of land in the reserved forests in the entire state have been occupied by encroachers and with the drive undertaken by the government for removing such encroachers, more than one lakh bighas of land has been cleared of encroachment. The advocate general contended that none of the appellants are flood-affected or landless, or forest dwellers, but are squatters and encroachers who, by their continuous illegal activities, have been damaging the natural habitat of wildlife. The Doyang and Nambar reserve forests had been notified about 100 years ago and never in the past, the appellants had made any claim for settlement, or for their right for 'jhum' or shifting cultivation, or else it would have been decided by the forest authorities, he said. He also submitted that the forest area in question has been demarcated and only such persons, who are found to be residing in such demarcated areas, have been issued notices. The chief justice observed that, barring a statement by the petitioners that they have been residing in the houses constructed over the years, which do not fall in the reserved forest area, no documentary proof for such a statement has been given. "However, in order to satisfy ourselves that the appellants are not forcefully and illegally evicted from their place of residence, we permit them to bring on record any document to establish the claim of their having been allocated land in the reserved forest area for the construction of houses," the chief justice observed. The court extended the time given to them to clear the forest area or submit documentary evidence of their land rights by another 10 days, to be counted from August 5, the day the order was passed, and till then no coercive steps shall be taken against the appellants. The court fixed the next date of hearing on August 14. The state government has carried out seven eviction drives since June this year, affecting more than 50,000 people and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had earlier said that all unauthorised occupation of forest land, VGR , PGR , Satras, Namghars, and other public areas would be cleared in a phased manner. Most of the people displaced due to the eviction drive are Bengali-speaking Muslim communities who claim that their ancestors had moved and settled in the areas where drives were carried out after their land in the 'Char' or riverine areas got washed away due to erosion by the Brahmaputra. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Time of India
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Assam picking up B'deshi illegals, dumping them in no-man's land
Assam picking up B'deshi illegals, dumping them in no-man's land GUWAHATI: Assam's BJP-led govt has accelerated the process of tracking down individuals declared illegal foreigners by Foreigners' Tribunals and is pushing them back into the no-man's land between India and Bangladesh. At least 49 such "declared foreign nationals" were pushed back from western and southern Assam on May 27 and 29, after which at least three petitioners have separately moved the Supreme Court and Gauhati HC seeking the whereabouts of their family members, suspected to have been pushed back, and a halt to the ongoing drive. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday that "30,000 people, after being declared foreign nationals by various tribunals over the years, have disappeared. We have decided to speed up the process of detecting them, which was paused when the NRC was being updated. The moment we get them, we have to take action and we are working as per law". Sarma said that in coming days there would be a lot of push-backs, and added that a declared foreigner could appeal in HC or SC. "If one has not preferred an appeal in the higher court, his right to stay in India is forfeited. But if a declared foreigner can show that he has made an appeal, we are not disturbing him," he said. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng CFDs với mức chênh lệch giá thấp nhất IC Markets Đăng ký Undo "If judiciary has given a stay (on the tribunal order declaring them foreigners), we are respecting the judiciary and we have allowed such people to stay," Sarma said. Sarma said that there were two types of illegals - people who have just come in and those who have been declared foreigners by tribunals. "The SC ordered (in Feb) that those declared foreigners and have not made any appeal should be sent back by any means. Only yesterday 35 Bangladeshis who came in a few days ago were detected near the border with Meghalaya, in Silchar, and were immediate pushed back," he said. On Thursday, Gauhati HC issued notice to the state govt directing it to provide details of the whereabouts of two brothers who were declared foreigners by a tribunal and subsequently released on conditional bail. One Torap Ali, nephew of Abu Bakkar Siddik and Akbar Ali, claimed in his petition that his family apprehends both his uncles "may be in danger of being illegally pushed into Bangladesh". The two were declared foreigners by a tribunal in 2017 and sent to a transit camp in Goalpara. They were released on bail in 2020 following an SC directive that those in detention for over two years may be released on bail. They were detained by police on May 24, the petitioner submitted, and claimed that the authorities have refused to give details of their whereabouts. The court has fixed the next hearing for June 4. Similarly, SC said on Friday it would hear on Monday a habeas corpus petition filed by a 26-year-old man stating that his mother, Monowara Bewa of Dhubri, also a declared foreigner, was detained by police on May 24 and since then her whereabouts were unknown.
Time of India
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
CM quits HC bar association over Judicial Township row
1 2 Guwahati: Himanta Biswa Sarma , chief minister, has resigned from the Gauhati High Court Bar Association , citing a conflict of interest over the proposed Judicial Township project. Sarma, who practised law from 1994 to 2001, submitted his resignation on Wednesday following the association's opposition to the establishment of new judicial infrastructure at Rangmahal in North Guwahati . In his resignation letter, Sarma addressed the association's objections to the Judicial Township, which was recommended by the high court during its Full Court meeting on Oct 18, 2023. Despite financial constraints, the state govt accepted the recommendation, committing over Rs 1,000 crore to the project. The CM highlighted the limitations of the current high court buildings in the city centre, including lack of expansion possibilities, insufficient parking, and inadequate facilities such as modern libraries, auditoriums, and advocates' chambers. "The existing infrastructure miserably failed to meet present-day requirements, and the situation will only worsen," Sarma said. The state govt identified six potential sites in Kamrup district, all within 15 minutes to 1.5 hours of travel time. Sarma warned that delaying the decision might force them to look beyond Kamrup district in the future. He also noted that the upcoming Guwahati-North Guwahati bridge would reduce travel time to the proposed site to just 15-20 minutes. He suggested converting the current high court buildings into a judicial museum and emphasised his constitutional duty to collaborate with the Gauhati HC, particularly on decisions made during Full Court meetings. The CM dismissed allegations that the North Guwahati location was chosen for political gain, as it falls within his constituency, calling such claims baseless. He expressed confidence that the legal fraternity would eventually recognise the long-term benefits of the decision, especially given the rapid infrastructural development in North Guwahati. "Given the Bar association's position, which conflicts with both the HC's and state govt's stance, I find myself in a morally difficult position, unable to align with the opposition to the Full Court's decision," Sarma concluded in his letter. The Bar association has yet to accept his resignation, with the executive committee expected to decide on the matter soon.
