More than 53,000 persons were acquitted by the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) in Assam and over 1.23 lakh cases are still pending trial, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
To a question by Trinamool Congress member Sushmita Dev, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in a written reply, “As reported by the Government of Assam, total number of cases currently pending in Foreigners Tribunals of Assam as on 31.12.2021 is 1,23,829. Total cases referred to the Foreigners Tribunals were 4,35,282 out of which total disposed cases were 3,09,048.”
The reply said that from 2015, the number of persons acquitted by the FTs stood at 53,533.
FTs are quasi judicial bodies, unique to Assam. According to the State’s Home Department, there were initially 11 Illegal Migrant Determination Tribunals (IMDT). These were converted to tribunals after the Supreme Court scrapped the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 in 2005.
A total of 100 numbers of of FTs are currently operational in Assam, the reply stated.
