In March 2017, she was declared a Bangladeshi national after her name and her father's and grandparents’ names were mismatched in the voters' list.
Team Clarion
GUWAHATI — After a six-year-long legal battle, a 50-year-old Assamese woman, who was declared an illegal migrant from Bangladesh due to her mismatched names in voters’ lists, has now regained her Indian citizenship.
Dulubi Bibi, a resident of Cachar district’s Udharbond area, was declared a foreign migrant by the Foreigners Tribunal in 2017 in Assam’s Silchar district.
Last week, Bibi was declared an Indian citizen based on circumstantial evidence, media reports said on Sunday.
Bibi approached the state high court in May of this year, challenging the tribunal’s earlier ruling, which wrongly categorised her as a foreigner.
The crux of the matter revolved around the names of Dulubi Bibi’s father and grandfather, which were found to have inconsistencies in various official records. Her father’s name was listed as “Sirai Mia” in one record and “Sirai Uddin” in another.
Similarly, her grandfather’s name appeared as “Majmil Ali Laskar” in one place and simply “Majmil Ali” in another, casting doubts on her lineage and origins.
Her ordeal began when she received a notice from Foreigners’ Tribunal-3 on November 2, 2015, leading to her detention at the Silchar Detention Camp. The ensuing years were marked by uncertainty and distress as she grappled with the challenge of rectifying these misspelled names that had led to her wrongful detention.
Foreigners Tribunal is a quasi-judicial body that decides the citizenship status of persons living in Assam.
Expressing her happiness after proving her citizenship, Bibi said; “Today I am happy because I got my Indian citizenship. After having Indian citizenship, I was branded as Bangladeshi. My grandparents are Indian citizens. How I can be branded as Bangladeshi? For two years I stayed in Silchar detention centre. I used to work as a cook before going to jail,” she was quoted by NDTV as saying.
“I’m not sure my husband will accept me or I’ll get any work now,” she said.
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