Calcutta High Court stays deactivation of Aadhaar of woman, family accused of being Bangladesh citizens

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday stayed the decision of the Union Home Ministry to deactivate the Aadhaar cards of a woman and her family members accused of being Bangladeshi nationals [Priya Das vs Union of India]..Single-judge Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya noted that the authorities did not follow the procedure as mandated under the Citizenship Act, 1955 for stripping an individual of Indian citizenship and also the procedures envisaged under the rules governing Aadhaar."Before such adjudication and/or a formal enquiry being undertaken, the respondent authorities cannot, in any manner, take away the basic rights of the petitioner woman and her family as citizens of India, as in the present case," the Court said.The Court noted that the woman's husband had initiated criminal proceedings against her alleging that she was a Bangladeshi national.However, the judge noted that at the time of enrolling for Aadhaar, the woman had submitted several documents indicating that she was an Indian citizen."Even if we assume for the sake of argument that the petitioner’s husband, against whom she has initiated a matrimonial suit and an alimony application, furnished certain documents, which are purportedly documents of her Bangladeshi nationality, there is no reason as to why ipso facto such documents, without further scrutiny, field enquiry and justified reasoning, would vitiate the documents produced by her regarding her Indian Citizenship," the Court said in the order.The presumption might have been otherwise if such documents regarding Bangladeshi citizenship were discovered or recovered from the custody of the petitioners themselves, the Court added.It further said that it is for the petitioner's husband to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that she and her family are Bangladeshi citizens and were so at the juncture when the documents-in-question including the Aadhaar Cards etc. were issued in their favour..The Court was hearing a plea filed by a woman and her family members whose Aadhaar cards were deactivated by the MHA on information received from Central Security Agency (CSA) stating that the petitioner was a Bangladeshi citizen. The Union government argued that since dual citizenship is impermissible under Indian Constitution, the Aadhaar cards were deactivated and consequentially her PAN and Voter ID cards were also suspended..From the criminal proceedings initiated by the husband against the petitioner, the Court noted that even the sub-inspector of police investigating the case was unsure as to whether the petitioners were Bangladeshi nationals. "The relevant extract of the said report indicates that the accused persons, that is, the petitioners, who are a family, are holding a number of documents pertaining to identity proof of the said persons with regard to their Indian citizenship as specifically showed at this present juncture. It is very difficult to prove, found the police in their report, that the petitioners are Bangladeshi nationals," the Court noted..It said that since the authorities failed to follow the due procedure, a strong prima facie case was made out by the petitioners to challenge the memoranda deactivating the Aadhaar. "Insofar as the deactivation of the Aadhaar Cards during pendency of the writ petition is concerned, the same also prima facie appears to be de hors the procedure as laid down in the 2016 Regulations pertaining to Aadhaar Cards. Accordingly, the deactivation of the petitioners’ Aadhaar Cards and all consequential action taken by the authorities shall remain stayed during pendency of the writ petition," the Court ordered.However, the judge made it clear that the authorities are not prevented from proceeding on the basis of the communication made in the memoranda under challenge in the writ petition subject to the rider that they shall comply with all due procedure under law.The matter will be further heard on December 5..Advocates Kallol Basu, Shibaji Kumar Das, Ahshan Ahmed, Samik Sarkar, Rupsa Sreemani, Atreya Chakrabarti and Swapnamoy Sarkar appeared for the Petitioners.Additional Solicitor General Ashok Kumar Chakrabarti along with Advocate Susmita Saha Dutta represented the Union Government.Advocate Anuran Samanta represented the Election Commission of India..[Read Order]