The Supreme Court's division bench of Justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the appointment of non-judicial members to Assam's Foreigners Tribunals on Friday. The court also granted the petitioners' counsel the right to petition the Gauhati High Court for the relief sought in the PIL filed by Advocate Tariq Adeeb.

According to the petition, the State government's High Court advertisements and related office memorandums (OMs) violate Section 10(5) of the Citizenship Act, which requires judicial experience for any appointment to Foreigners' Tribunals.

"Their appointments are such that the State and the Union can and do interfere constantly with the functioning of these Tribunals and force the Tribunals to give verdicts declaring persons to be not Indian which decisions are not based on merits...the entire functioning of the Foreigners Tribunals are biased and malafide to meet the objectives of the State and the Union to declare as many persons as possible as not Indian without the decision being on merits."

Such interference in hiring is accordingly flawed, illegal and arbitrary, as it encourages an artificial increase in people being declared foreigners, the plea stated.

"The members were retained or terminated not on the percentage of disposed cases but rather on the percentage of declared foreigners. Several names recommended for termination of contract had a decent or high rate of disposal— two of them had disposed over forty percent of their cases, among only eight others who had achieved the same. Yet, members with a far lower disposal rate had been retained— ostensibly because of the high percentage of individuals they DD had declared foreigners."

A review of the appointment process to prevent undue influence from the State government was also requested, as was the declaration of the voidness of orders adjudicated by members with no judicial background.

Case Details:

Tariq Adeeb v. Union of India and anr

Writ Petition (Civil) No. 747/2021

Read the complete order on the following link:-

https://main.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2021/13960/13960_2021_6_3_39466_Order_04-Nov-2022.pdf