The Gauhati High Court has ruled that if a person has been declared an Indian citizen by a Foreigners Tribunal [FT] in Assam, he or she cannot be tried for a second time in the tribunal and stamped as a foreigner.
A Division Bench of Justices N. Kotiswara Singh and Malashri Nandy, in a recent order passed on a set of 12 petitions, stated that the principle of ‘res judicata’ [meaning that once the matter has been decided it cannot be reopened by the same parties] was applicable to the FTs in the state.
The High Court observed that the common theme which runs through the batch of writ petitions filed before them is the applicability of the principle of ‘res judicata’.
