No property rights or welfare schemes for ‘declared foreigners’, Centre argues in Gauhati High Court

People declared “foreigners” are not entitled to any welfare schemes and their properties should be confiscated, the Union government has argued in court.

Assistant Solicitor General RKD Choudhury made this submission on behalf of the Centre in the Gauhati High Court last week. The court is examining the entitlements of a person declared a foreigner by Assam’s foreigners’ tribunals, quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate on matters of citizenship in the state.

The court embarked on this line of enquiry while hearing a petition by a person declared a foreigner by one such tribunal.

People declared foreigners were only entitled to protections under Article 21 of the Constitution, Choudhury argued. The provision guarantees the protection of life and personal liberty to every person, citizens and foreigners alike.

Welfare schemes of the government were not among the entitlements that Article 21 provided, said Choudhury. “These schemes relate to the citizens only,” the official added.

Choudhury also advocated for the annulment of property rights of people declared as foreigners. A declared foreigner’s ownership of land “is contrary to the law of the land and that has to go,” he said.

Such a person’s property ought to be “reverted back to the state not to the person who has sold it because the...

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