• NET Web Desk

An Assam resident – hailing from Cachar district, who was declared a foreigner by a tribunal in 2017 regained the citizenship, after intervention from the Gauhati High Court (HC).

Identified as Sefali Rani Das, the woman was declared foreigner during a judgement passed by a judge of Silchar’s Foreigners’ Tribunal as her lawyer didn’t appear before the court on the days of hearing.

According to Indian Express report, “the 2017 order given by the Foreigners’ Tribunal was challenged in the Gauhati High Court in 2018 and Sefali got another chance to prove her Indian citizenship.”

However, last week, her case was heard by the tribunal and it declared Das an Indian citizen based on “cogent, reliable and admissible evidence.”

A member (judge) of the tribunal, Dharmananda Deb in his opinion, wrote, “She has clearly been able to establish the presence of her grandfather on Indian soil, relatable to the period prior to 25.03.1971 with valid linkage documents of a father as well as herself in accordance with law.”