New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (July 13) held that the determination of citizenship must be carried out through a “fair, lawful and reasoned” process, as it quashed the orders by Foreigners Tribunals and Guwahati high court in declaring 27 people as foreign nationals. The top court noted that the consequence of a person being declared a foreign national is huge and may lead to detention, deportation, separation from family and even possibly leave them stateless.A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, hearing a batch of petitions arising from Assam, stated that the government has legitimate and compelling interest in ensuring persons not legally entitled to claim Indian citizenship do not secure such status by misusing the process. However, the judges found fault with the procedural fairness adopted by foreigners tribunals and Guwahati high court, saying that many of the orders were passed without hearing those affected.“A person proceeded against before a Foreigners Tribunal may ultimately fail to establish Indian citizenship, but the process by which such determination is made must still satisfy the constitutional requirements of fairness, reasonableness and non-arbitrariness,” the bench said, in its order.“The State has a legitimate and compelling interest in ensuring that persons who are not legally entitled to claim Indian citizenship do not secure such status by misuse of process, by false claims or by taking advantage of delays…At the same time, the determination of such status must be made through a process which is fair, lawful and reasoned,” it noted.The Wire has previously reported about 15 individuals who were officially declared foreigners by different foreigners’ tribunals in Assam’s Nagaon district. The district administration had also issued expulsion orders against them under the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950.Burden of proofThe top court has directed the tribunals to give them a fresh hearing and decide the cases. The bench observed that while Section 9 of the Foreigners Act places the burden upon the person to prove he or she is not a foreigner, “the existence of a statutory burden under Section 9 cannot be read to mean a tribunal is relieved of its own obligation to conduct a lawful adjudication”, The Times of India reported.“Section 9 does not authorise a mechanical declaration,” it reportedly said, adding that it “does not exclude the principles of natural justice”.It further explained that even where a person does not appear, the tribunal continues to function as a quasi-judicial body and must satisfy itself that notice was duly served, that the main grounds of the allegation were disclosed, that the State has produced material capable of supporting the reference and that its conclusions are supported by reasons.The Gauhati high court had dismissed the appeals of the people against the orders of the Foreigners Tribunals declaring the appellants to be foreign nationals, noting that none of them had appeared before the tribunals despite having been served notices. The appellants then challenged the orders of the high court affirming those declarations.Fresh adjudicationThe Supreme Court has remitted the matters to the respective foreigners tribunals for fresh adjudication. The appellants have been directed to appear before the tribunals within four weeks, and the concerned tribunals have been ordered to permit them to file their written statements, documents and affidavits of evidence within such time as may be fixed by the tribunal.In September last year, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) empowered the foreigners’ tribunals functioning in the state to detect ‘illegal immigrants’ along with the power to issue arrest warrants and send anyone who cannot provide proof that they are not foreigners to the holding centres under the new Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025.As many as 100 foreign tribunals are functioning in the border state.