Supreme Court disposes of PIL challenging non-judicial members in Assam Foreigners Tribunals; grants liberty to move HC

The Supreme Court on Friday disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the appointment of non-judicial members to Assam's Foreigners Tribunals (FTs). (Tariq Adeeb v. Union of India and anr).A Bench of Justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh gave liberty to counsel for the petitioners to move the Gauhati High Court for the relief sought in the PIL filed by Advocate Tariq Adeeb. .The petition states that High Court advertisements and related office memorandums (OMs) of the State government are in violation of Section 10 (5) of the Citizenship Act, which mandatorily calls for judicial experience for any appointment to Foreigners' Tribunals. The advertisements and OMs in question paved the way for civil servants to be members of the tribunals. The PIL flags the political nature of such appointments, stating how such members would always remain at the mercy of the State government, which undermines the independence of the judiciary."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."Emphasising that Foreigners' Tribunals sit with a single member, the plea states that non-judicial members are being appointed on one-year contracts, and they are given extensions based on the number of foreigners declared. 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." The PIL accordingly prayed for quashing appointments of all non-judicial members at such Tribunals.A review of the appointment process so as to prevent undue influence from the State government was also sought and further, that the orders adjudicated by members with no judicial background be declared void..The petition has been drawn by Adeeb and Advocate Fazak Abdali, and filed through Advocate Satya Mitra. Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves appeared for the petitioner. .[Read order]