Supreme Court To Examine Citizenship Claim Of Woman Deported To Bangladesh

The Supreme Court is set to examine the plea of a woman deported to Bangladesh after the Foreigners Tribunal declared her as a "foreigner of post-1971 stream".A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi recently issued notice on the woman's plea, limited to the purpose of examining genuineness of certain documents relied upon by her brother to prove Indian citizenship.The petitioner is 44-year old Musstt Aheda Khatun, a widow, who challenges the Gauhati High Court order of August, 2025, which dismissed her plea against the Foreigners Tribunal declaration that she was a "foreigner of post-1971 stream".She was taken into custody in September, 2025 and detained at Matia Detention Centre, Assam. After failing to obtain relief from the High Court, she approached the Supreme Court but was deported to Bangladesh shortly thereafter.In 2019, the Foreigners Tribunal held that the petitioner failed to establish linkage with her Indian parents and grandparents. Assailing this finding, the petitioner claims that she had produced 9 admissible documents before the FT, including 4 consecutive Voter Lists, Jamabandi and land records, a Registered Gift deed, school certificate and Gaonburah certificate.She underlines that the High Court refused to interfere not on merits, but on the ground of delay, and therefore did not examine the "undisputed documents"."the Learned Tribunal rejected the evidence on wholly perverse grounds...the Hon'ble High Court, instead of rectifying these patent errors, disposed of the writ petition solely on the issue of "delay", imputing falsity to the Petitioner and refusing to examine the merits, despite the fact that the entire family of the Petitioner - including her father and fourteen siblings - stands accepted in the NRC final list, and the petitioner alone was tagged as DV solely due to the pendency of the FT reference."As per averments made in the petition, the petitioner was an inhabitant of Assam. She was born in 1981 and both her parents appeared regularly in the electoral rolls of 1965, 1970, 1985 and 1997. Her father inherited ancestral land through mutation in 1987, which he subsequently gifted to his daughters, including the petitioner, through a 2010 registered gift deed (mentioned above).The petition has been filed through AoR Adeel Ahmed.Case Title: MUSSTT AHEDA KHATUN @ MUSSTT AHEDA KHATOON vs. UNION OF INDIA, SLP(C) No. 2598/2026Click here to read the order

Supreme Court To Examine Citizenship Claim Of Woman Deported To Bangladesh

Debby Jain

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