BJP TODAY

May 1--15, 2003 - Vol. 12, No. 09

IMDT ACT, 1983
Prescription for encouraging infiltration
Prafull Goradia

The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 is a legislation by the Indian Parliament to identify Bangladeshi infiltrators. Amazingly the Act applies only to the State of Assam. Even the immediate neighbouring states like Meghalaya are not covered. In fact, the rest of India works under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Citizenship Act, 1955.

Under sub sec.(I) of Section 8 of the Act of 1983, any person may make an application to the tribunal for its decision whether the person whose name and other particulars are given in the application is or is not an illegal immigrant. However for making such an application, it is conditional that the person/illegal immigrant in relation to whom the application is made, must reside within 3 kms from the place of residence of the applicant. Otherwise the tribunal shall not entertain the application.

One stringent condition has been stipulated in the Act of 1983 which provides that the application to be made in the prescribed form, shall be accompanied by affidavit sworn by not less than two persons residing within 3 kms of the area in which the person against whom the complaint is made is found or residing, corroborating the averments made in the application.

Another outstanding feature of the Act is that the burden of proving that a person is a foreigner is on the applicant who complains that a particular person is an illegal migrant. The Foreigners Act, 1946, which applies to the rest of India, places the burden of proving a person to be a citizen of India and not an illegal migrant on the suspect.

On receipt of an application under sub section (2) of section 8, the Tribunal shall issue a notice, accompanied by a copy of the application, to the prescribed authority calling upon it to furnish, after making such inquiry as that authority may deem fit, a report to the Tribunal with regard to the averments made in the application.

If on a consideration of the report made by the prescribed authority, the Tribunal is satisfied that :

(a) The person named in the application is not an illegal migrant or that the application is frivolous or has not been made in good faith, the Tribunal shall, after giving the applicant an opportunity to be heard, reject the application;

(b) There are reasonable grounds to believe that the person named in the application is an illegal migrant, the Tribunal shall issue a notice accompanied by a copy of the application, to the person named in the application, calling upon him to make, within thirty days from the date of receipt of the notice, such representation with regard to the averments made in the application and to produce such evidence as he may think fit in support of his defence.

Provided that if the Tribunal is satisfied that the person aforesaid was prevented by sufficient cause from making his presentation and from producing evidence in support of his defence within the said period of thirty days, it may permit him to make his representation and to produce evidence in support of his defence, within such further period, not exceeding thirty days, as it may, by order specify.

How stringent is the procedure prescribed by IMDT in order to judge a suspect to be an illegal migrant is evident. But not merely that, there is a provision for two layers of appeal beyond the judgment of the tribunal, namely the Appellant Tribunal as well as the High Court. This makes it well nigh impossible to declare anyone an illegal migrant.

The IMDT Act was made into law by the Congress government in 1983. Its single aim was to placate the minority sentiments, which welcome infiltration from Bangladesh in order to increase the Muslim population of the state of Assam.