The Assam government is planning a crash course for members of foreigners tribunals which are quasi-judicial bodies that determine the citizenship of suspected foreigners illegally staying in the state.

The move has been prompted by a November 21 order of a Gauhati High Court division bench comprising justices Achintya Malla Bujor Barua and Mitali Thakuria while hearing a petition filed by a Bongaigaon resident Forhad Ali, declared a foreigner by an FT in 2019.

Ali was declared a foreigner owing to a mismatch in the spelling of his father (Habi Rahman and Habibar Rahman) in official documents submitted by Ali to prove his citizenship.

The case has been referred back to the FT for review because minor variation in the spelling of a person’s name is not to be made a basis to conclude they are two different individuals.

In its 10-page order in the Forhad Ali case, which was made available on December 1, Gauhati High Court had directed the state government to review the orders of the FTs in “respect of such orders in the references which have declared the proceedees to be citizens without analysing the materials produced before the tribunals, and/or without stating any reasons and without arriving at any decision”.

In an affidavit filed in the Forhad Ali case, the state government had stated almost 85 per cent of the cases where the proceedees/applicants were declared foreigners were eventually found to be Indians.

An official familiar with issues related to the FTs told The Telegraph on Tuesday that the state home and political department is mulling a crash course for the FT members at the National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam (NLUJAA), in Guwahati.

“It was mulled at an internal meeting following the HC order which said FT orders were passed without proper analysis and reasoning. We feel a crash course could be of help to rectify the situation flagged by the court. The department official will meet the law university people soon to finalise a road map for the course and the duration of the special course because the FT members are also senior people,” the official said.

A former FT member said that the members are appointed under the Foreigners Tribunal Act, 1946, and Foreigners Tribunal Order, 1964.

Currently, there are 100 FTs in Assam and 97,000 pending cases with the tribunals.