Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Supreme Court today (May 19) ruled that mere inclusion of the name in the draft National Register of Citizenship (“NRC”) cannot invalidate a previous declaration given by a Foreigners Tribunal that the person was a 'foreigner' under the Foreigners Act, 1946 (“Act”).

Holding thus, the bench comprising Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Manoj Misra affirmed the Gauhati High Court's decision, which had refused to interfere with the Tribunal's decision to declare the Appellant as a foreigner despite his name appearing in the draft NRC.

The question was whether on inclusion of the name of the appellant in the draft NRC published by the competent authority in the year 2018, the declaration made by the Tribunal in March 2017, as affirmed by the High Court, would be rendered invalid?

Answering in the negative, the judgment authored by Justice Misra referred to the case of Abdul Kuddus v. Union of India (2019), which ruled that once declared a foreigner by a Tribunal, NRC inclusion has no legal value.

Admittedly, the draft NRC was published in 2018 and by that time, the appellant had already been declared a foreigner by the Tribunal.

The Court emphasised that the decision of the Foreigners Tribunal takes precedence over the mere inclusion of a name in the NRC. It noted that the appellant failed to produce consistent and credible documents such as voter lists and school records to establish his citizenship, a burden he is required to discharge under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act.

“In view of the decision of this Court in Abdul Kuddus (supra), firstly, consequent to the declaration by the Tribunal that appellant is a foreigner, the name of the appellant could not have been included in the draft NRC and, secondly, even if it has been included, it would not annul the declaration made by the Tribunal.”, the court said.

In terms of the aforesaid, the Court dismissed the appeal.

Case Title: ROFIQUL HOQUE VERSUS THE UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

Citation : 2025 LiveLaw (SC) 600

Click here to read/download the judgment

Appearance:

For Petitioner(s) :Mr. Pijush Kanti Roy, Sr. Adv. Mrs. Kakali Roy, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Kumar Chaurasia, AOR Mr. Sujeet Kumar, Adv. Mr. Devender Singh, Adv. Mr. Gautam Kumar, Adv.

For Respondent(s) :Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General(not present) Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G.(not present) Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, Adv. Ms. Prerna Dhal, Adv. Ms. Astha Singh, Adv. Ms. Sampa Sengupta Ray, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Mr. Saurabh Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Deepayan Dutta, Adv.