Assam: Woman declared foreigner six years ago, now declared Indian

A woman from Assam, who was declared as a foreigner by the Foreigners Tribunal six years ago, has been declared as an Indian again. 

50-year-old Dulubi Bibi was declared as an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh by a Foreigners Tribunal in Silchar in 2017. The Foreigners Tribunal took the decision over name mismatches in voters' list. Now Dulubi Bibi has been declared as an Indian citizen based on circumstantial evidence. 

A resident of the Udarbond area of Cachar district, Dulubi Bibi was declared as a foreigner on March 20, 2017, during a hearing on a case of 1998 under the Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunals (IMDT) Act. 

The court back then had found that there were three different names on different voters' lists and also that there were mismatches in the names of her father and grandfather in the voters' list as well. During the case, Dulubi Bibi also could not establish connection between her parents' names. 

Following this, the court had ordered for her arrest on April 18, 2018 and sent her to a detention camp in Silchar. However later, she was released on bail from the detention centre in April 2020. She then challenged the Foreigner Tribunal's order in the Gauhati High Court.

Here, she was provided free legal support by the District Legal Service Authority (DLSA) with advocate Mahitosh Das being appointed as her lawyer. Dulubi Bibi was also helped by social activist Kamal Chakraborty in this struggle to prove that she is an Indian citizen. This was later followed by the Gauhati High Court ordering the Foreigners Tribunal to hear the case again. 

And finally, as a result of the renewed hearing, Dulubi Bibi was declared as an Indian citizen on October 11. Interestingly, this new judgement proclaiming as an Indian citizen, was passed by BK Talukdar, a foreigners tribunal member who had declared as an illegal back in 2017. 

BK Talukdar wrote in the new order declaring Dulubi Bibi as an Indian citizen, "According to the report submitted by the Superintendent of Police (B) with related documents including copies of NRC details of 1966, printed voters list of 1993, Gaon Panchayat Certificate, Elector Voter Identify Card and an Affidavit stating that the OP Dulabjan Begum daughter of Siraj Uddin Laskar, Dulabjan Begum daughter of Siraj Mia and Dulabjan Bibi are one and the same person."