STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: In a significant development, the Gauhati High Court has ruled that PAN Card and voter ID card alone cannot prove Indian citizenship.
Hearing a petition filed by one Kulchan Begum, who challenged a Mangaldai Foreigners' Tribunal order declaring her a foreigner, a division bench of Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Susmita Phukan Khaund ruled that the PAN Card and EPIC exhibited by the petitioner were no proof of Indian citizenship.
They pointed out that these are documents issued on self-application without any formal enquiry by the Income Tax Department and Election Commission of India.
Hence, unless, the records supplementing the PAN Card and EPIC are proved, they stated that the exhibited documents cannot be accepted as a proof of citizenship of India.
The bench cited the case of Md. Babul Islam vs Union of India & Others [W.P.(C) 3547/ 2016) decided by the Gauhati Court on May 9, 2018, and the case of Md Babul Islam vs Union of India & Others [W.P.(C) No. 3547/2016] decided by the same court on May 9, 2018 in this regard.
According to the bench, the copy of application for NRC was not proved by calling for the original, and the NRC had not been updated till the date when the impugned opinion was passed.
Hence, the court ruled that the NRC copy is not admissible in evidence, neither the certificate issued by Area Sabha representative a proof of citizenship or for proving parentage.
Further, the court also stated that the voter list of 2018 does not link the petitioner to her projected parents, adding that ration card is also not a proof of citizenship. Moreover, the said document does not link the petitioner to her projected parents.
They pointed out that the election cards, which were exhibited, did not prove that the petitioner is the daughter of the person in whose favour those exhibits were issued.
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