‘Seems they don’t want us to prove our identity’: Same persons get multiple D-voter notices post NRC

“She has supporting documents, including her father’s refugee certificate of 1964, to prove her Indian identity. She has voted regularly since 1997 but the process of judgment is getting delayed due to lack of government pleaders. We have appealed to the court to arrange a combined judgment for Malati Bala,” Chanda said.

The Tribunals — currently 100 in number (while 200 new ones are being set up) — are the ultimate authority in determining citizenship in Assam, and have the discretion of sending people to detention centres, if they fail to prove that they are Indian.

At a time when these courts have increasingly earned a bad reputation for their incorrect judgments, Das found backing from former Silchar MP and Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev, who visited Foreigners Tribunals in Barak Valley, located in the south of Assam, on Monday.

Malati Bala Das has been served three notices by the government alleging that she was a Doubtful or ‘D’ voter. (Express photo by Biswa Kalyan Purkayastha)

“Leave aside politics, the government which is of the people, for the people and by the people should at least think of humanity. It is very difficult for her (Das) to even move with two damaged kidneys but she has to appear before the tribunal court which is more than 40 km away from her house,” Dev said, taking a jibe at the government.

The Assam Congress leader also expressed concern over the shortage of infrastructure and feared that it would be very difficult to finish the task of hearing those excluded from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) within the stipulated period of 120 days. The final NRC list was published on August 31 and excluded 19,06,657 people out of 3.3 crore applicants.

“The ground reality is that a large number of the existing tribunals don’t have government pleaders (lawyers from the government side), bench assistants, typists, and other necessary staffs,” Dev said.

Dev warned that while the NRC exercise drove many to poverty and commit suicide, the post-NRC period maybe even worse. “I visited the Foreigners Tribunals (FT) in Silchar to see for myself what is the level of efficiency. The 19 lakh people left out of NRC are heading towards a crisis. NRC drove many people to poverty and even to commit suicide, post-NRC it is going to be even worse,” she said.

However, officials at the tribunals blamed lawyers for the delay in the delivery of judgments and repeated harassment of the accused. “In many cases, lawyers make weak statements in support of the accused. We can’t help the party in making their case, hence we give them dates,” an official said.

Malati Das is not the only one with multiple notices served to her and there are several similar cases where D-voter notices from tribunal courts have been issued against the same person.

A rickshaw puller, Bhakta Das (60) was served a notice in 2009 but in 2011 he was declared an Indian citizen by a tribunal court. Interestingly, he was served a D-Voter notice in 2017 again. Despite proving his identity once, Bhakta is again making the rounds of courts.

His wife, Sumita Das (55), was also served notice in 2017 and she too is facing trial at Foreigners Tribunal Court-IV in Silchar. Frustrated with the developments, Bhakta has decided to move the Gauhati High Court despite knowing that the process will drain his entire life’s savings.

“It is extremely difficult for him to go to the High Court because of his financial status. They have adequate documents to prove their identity. Still, the local tribunal court is making him suffer,” his lawyer Tanmay Purkayastha said.

Seven years after Arjun Namasudra of Cachar district committed suicide after he was served a D-voter notice, a similar crisis has come back to haunt his family. Though his children, wife, and mother were listed in the final draft of NRC released on August 31, his mother-in-law Sabitri Biswas’ name is missing.

Sabitri was served a D-voter notice in 2017. “If the government is not convinced, if this country is not willing to accept us, then shoot us and give us relief from this continuing humiliation. It seems as if they don’t want us to prove our identity,” Sabitri said.