The Gauhati High Court upheld a 2018 tribunal order declaring Darrang resident Kulchan Begum a foreigner who entered India after March 25, 1971, and dismissed her petition challenging it.A division bench of Justices Kalyan Rai Surana and Susmita Phukan Khaund found that the documents she submitted, including her fatherās PAN card and voter card and her own voter identity card, were insufficient to establish her citizenship or her relationship with her claimed parents. (Representative image)Guwahati,Nov 13, 2026 14:35 ISTThe Gauhati High Court has rejected a womanās claim to Indian citizenship and upheld a Foreigners Tribunal order declaring her a foreigner who entered India after March 25, 1971, news agency Press Trust of India reported.The court said a Permanent Account Number (PAN) card and an Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) alone could not establish Indian citizenship or prove a family relationship unless supported by the records used to issue them. It dismissed the writ petition filed by Kulchan Begum of Darrang district.Begum had challenged a 2018 order of a Foreigners Tribunal in Mangaldai.
A division bench of Justices Kalyan Rai Surana and Susmita Phukan Khaund found that the documents she submitted, including her fatherās PAN card and voter card and her own voter identity card, were insufficient to establish her citizenship or her relationship with her claimed parents.āThe PAN card and EPIC exhibited by the petitioner are not proof of citizenship. These are documents that are issued upon self-application without any formal enquiry by the Income Tax Department and Election Commission of India.
Therefore, unless the records supplementing the PAN card and EPIC are proved, the said exhibited documents cannot be accepted as proof of Indian citizenship,ā the High Court said in its November 5 judgment, according to PTI.The petitioner claimed that she was born on April 25, 1977, and brought up in Luitpar, Kharghuli, in Guwahati. She identified Sabed Ali and Jaheda Khatun as her grandparents and said their names appeared in the 1966 and 1970 electoral rolls of Nosotra village in the then Kamrup district.
She claimed that their son, Abu Chand Mohammad, was her father. To establish her citizenship, she relied on the electoral rolls of 1966 and 1970, her fatherās PAN card and EPIC, her own voter identity card, a family ration card, the 2018 electoral roll and an acknowledgement receipt for her National Register of Citizens application.She also said her father was an Indian citizen whose name appeared in electoral records.
According to her petition, he contested the 2009 Lok Sabha election from Barpeta and the 2011 Assam Assembly election from Baghbar. He also served as an elected councillor of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation in 2013.The High Court, however, said his electoral and political record did not establish her claimed relationship with him.āA mere fact that the projected father of the petitioner had offered his candidature in Lok Sabha election and State Assembly election and that he was an elected ward member of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation, is not sufficient to prove that the petitioner has been able to establish her linkage with the said person,ā the judgment said.The court also found inconsistencies in the family history presented by the petitioner and the ages recorded in the electoral rolls.
It noted that her claimed fatherās name first appeared in the 1997 electoral roll, where his age was recorded as 50.The bench said there was no evidence showing that her claimed grandparents and father had continuously lived in Assam between 1970 and 1997, a period of 27 years. It said the petitioner was required to establish their continuous residence in the state.The court further found that the documents failed to establish the required family relationship.
A certificate issued by an Area Sabha representative was not proved by the person who issued it, while the ration card and the 2018 electoral roll also failed to establish her relationship with her claimed parents.āNone of the exhibited documents helps the petitioner discharge her burden under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946 to prove that she is a citizen of India and the daughter of Indian parents,ā the judges observed.The petitioner also submitted a copy of an application made during the NRC process. The court said it could not be accepted as evidence because the final draft of the NRC had not been updated when the Tribunal gave its opinion.The case against her was registered in 2000 under the former Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983.
It was transferred to the Foreigners Tribunal system after the Supreme Court struck down the Act in 2005.Upholding the Tribunalās opinion, the High Court dismissed Begumās writ petition and recalled and revoked the interim bail granted to her on April 18, 2022.Foreigners Tribunals in Assam decide citizenship matters based on lineage and use March 25, 1971, as the cut-off date for entry into the state. People declared foreigners by these tribunals can challenge the orders before the High Court or the Supreme Court.
In Begumās case, the High Court concluded that the documents submitted did not prove either her Indian citizenship or her claimed family links.- Ends