New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and the State of Assam to file replies by April 13 on a petition seeking a stay on the controversial notification under the Foreigners Act that puts the onus on the complainant to prove that a particular person is a foreigner.
The direction came from a Bench of Justice S B Sinha and Justice P K Balasubramanyan after Solicitor General G E Vahanvati and senior counsel K K Venugopal sought time to file short affidavits on behalf of the Centre and the State of Assam respectively in response to the petition.
On behalf of the petitioners, senior counsel Ashok Desai, Arun Jaitley and Ravishankar Prasad requested the Court to stay the notification.
The court asked the petitioners to file their rejoinders, if any, by April 17, when it would take up the matter for hearing.
During the arguments, Venugopal said elections in the state would be over on Monday, to which Prasad said the issue was 'beyond elections'. Jaitley said under the Foreigners Act, all over the country the onus is on the accused person to prove he is an Indian or a foreigner, then why should the onus be shifted to the complainant only in Assam.
Asom Gana Parishad MP Sarbananda Sonowal and local BJP leader Charan Chandra Deka have filed separate petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the Centre's notification.
Earlier, the Court had issued notices to the Centre, Assam Government and the Attorney General on the petition.
The notification was issued after the Supreme Court last year declared the IMDT Act 'unconstitutional' and ordered that the status of the 'foreigners' in Assam be determined under the Foreigners Act.
The Act puts the onus on an alleged foreigner to prove whether he/she is an Indian national or not.
However, the Centre issued the notification under the Foreigners Act shifting the onus from the alleged foreigner to the complainant to prove that a particular person is a foreigner and not an Indian.
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