Once declared an Indian, a person cannot later be declared a foreigner rules the Gauhati High Court. The high court's current observations are especially significant in light of several accounts of individuals being certified citizens by Foreigner's Tribunal only to be detained by police later.
According to NDTV, once an individual has been proclaimed a citizen of India by a Foreigners' Tribunal (FT), that individual cannot be pronounced a non-Indian if they are taken before the tribunal for a second time.
A bench of Justices N. Kotiswar Singh and Nani Tagia observed that the FT's judgment on citizenship will be governed by the rule of res judicata, which states that a case that has been resolved by a proper court cannot be heard by the very same parties.
The bench reached its decision while considering a group of cases in which the petitioners had previously been deemed Indian nationals but were later pronounced foreigners in subsequent procedures.
Two previous c...