Assam govt decides to not prosecute Gorkhas below the Citizenship Act

The Himanta Biswa Sarma authorities in Assam at the moment took the choice to not prosecute Gorkhas residing within the state below the Citizenship Act, 1955. In the weekly cabinet assembly held on Wednesday, the cabinet additionally determined that every one instances pending in Foreigners Tribunals within the state towards individuals from the Gorkha group shall be withdrawn.
This was knowledgeable by the chief minister on Twitter at the moment night. This transfer comes as an enormous reduction from the Gorkhas in Assam, as they have been fearing prosecution as unlawful immigrants. They weren’t included when the National Register of Citizens (NRC) within the state was up to date in 2019, for failing to show their citizenship.

You shall be additional blissful to notice that Assam cabinet took a choice at the moment not prosecute any Gorkha citizen below the Citizenship Amendment Act 1955 and in addition to withdraw all pending prosecution regarding Gorkhas from foreigners tribunals https://t.co/YEYXw0raWe— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) August 4, 2021
While principally suspected unlawful immigrants from Bangladesh are listed as ‘D’ voters in Assam, a lot of Gorkhas additionally characteristic on this. Around 23,000 Gorkha voters in Assam are additionally labelled as ‘D’ voters within the electoral rolls within the state. The ‘D’ is added to the names of voters within the voter lists who’re suspected of being unlawful immigrants, and such voters are barred from voting in elections till their instances are settled within the Foreigners Tribunals and courts.
Exempting Gorkhas from prosecution below the Citizenship Act implies that individuals from Gorkha group shall be thought of as Indian residents with out having to show their citizenship below the Act. As the instances towards them within the Foreigner Tribunals shall be withdrawn, it implies that the D tag from their names within the voter lists may also be eliminated in future.
The transfer comes two weeks after the Assam authorities had included the Gorkhas within the record of protected communities within the Sadiya Tribal Belts. On July twentieth, the Government of Assam had issued a notification informing that the Moran, Matak, Ahom, Chutia and Gorkha communities are included within the record of protected lessons within the Sadiaya Tribal Belt, supplied they’re everlasting residences of the area. The tweet by Himanta Biswa Sarma got here as a reply to Darjeeling MP Raju Bista, who had thanked the CM for the notification.
It is notable that in 2018, the union authorities had clarified to the Assam authorities that any member of the Gorkha group holding Nepalese nationality and who has arrived in India by land or air over the Nepal border even with no passport or visa and staying in India for any size of time shall not be handled as an unlawful migrant. The GOI had mentioned that if any such Gorkha carries any Nepalese proof of id, they gained’t prosecuted as unlawful immigrant below the Foreigners Act, 1946.