The Gauhati High Court has held that Permanent Account Number cards and voter ID cards alone cannot establish citizenship unless supported by the records used to issue them.
The court made the observation on November 5, while dismissing a petition filed by a woman challenging a tribunal order that had declared her a foreigner who entered India in March 1971.
A division bench of Justices Kalyan Rai Surana and Susmita Phukan Khaund found that Kulchan Begum had failed to establish her links to her claimed father and grandparents through reliable evidence.
Begum had also failed to prove that they had continuously lived in Assam, as required under the 1955 Citizenship Act, the judgement noted.
The woman had claimed that she was born in Assam on April 25, 1977. To establish her citizenship, she submitted electoral rolls from 1966 and 1970 listing her claimed grandparents, along with her father’s permanent account card and voter ID, her own voter ID, a ration card and an acknowledgement receipt for her National Register of Citizens application.
She also contended that her father was an Indian citizen whose name appeared in electoral records. She claimed that he had contested the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections and served as a councillor of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation.
However, the…
Source: Scroll.in
