Foreigners Act, 1946

The Kerala Government, after initially consenting to CBI investigation of espionage cases under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, later withdrew that consent to allow State Police to conduct a "further investigation". The Supreme Court held that once the CBI, acting on the State's consent, comple…

The Chakma refugees, who migrated from East Pakistan to Assam in 1964 and were later shifted to the North‑East Frontier Agency (now Arunachal Pradesh) in 1966, were allotted land under a government resettlement scheme but subsequently occupied land donated by a local Raja inside a protected inner‑line area. The State d…

The petitioners, foreign missionaries who had been residing in India since the pre‑Independence era on periodically renewed residential permits, were ordered to leave the country in July 1987. They contended that, having been ordinarily resident for more than five years immediately before the commencement of the Consti…

Md Misher Ali was alleged by the Assam police to be an illegal migrant from Bangladesh who entered India after 24 March 1971. The police referred him to the Foreigner's Tribunal, which served notice by hanging it at his temporary address in Sivasagar, despite his permanent residence being in Dhubri, and subsequently de…

The case involved nine accused who conspired to kidnap foreign nationals in India to demand the release of jailed militants. The main conspirator, Umar Sheikh, escaped after an exchange of hijacked‑plane passengers, while six co‑accused were convicted under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA…

The appellant, a Sri Lankan national named Ranjan, was arrested in 2021 and charged under multiple statutes for allegedly being the absconding accused "Sri" (A‑5) involved in a conspiracy to revive the banned LTTE. The prosecution’s case rested solely on the belated testimonies of two witnesses who identified the appel…

The appellant, Rofiqul Hoque, was declared a foreigner by the Foreigners Tribunal in Assam for allegedly entering India after 25 March 1971, a finding upheld by the Gauhati High Court. He challenged the declaration, arguing that his name appeared in the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in 2018 and that minor d…

A.G. Perarivalan, convicted for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment and spent over three decades in jail. The Tamil Nadu State Cabinet recommended remission of his sentence in September 2018, but the Governor delayed action for two and a half yea…

The Supreme Court examined writ petitions filed under Article 32 challenging the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which was inserted to give effect to the Assam Accord. The petitioners, representing the people of Assam, argued that illegal migration from Bangladesh threatened the sove…

The case concerns the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which grants citizenship to certain migrants from Bangladesh to Assam based on cut-off dates (before 1.1.1966 and between 1.1.1966 and 25.3.1971). The provision was enacted to implement the Assam Accord. Petitioners challenged it …

The petitioners challenged a perceived conflict between sub‑paragraph (2) of paragraph 3 and paragraph 8 of the Schedule to the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, contending that persons declared illegal migrants or foreigners could still appeal and be included in t…

The appellant, former ISRO scientist S. Nambi Narayanan, was arrested in 1994 on alleged espionage charges that were later found to be false by the CBI, leading to his discharge. He spent nearly fifty days in police custody, during which the Supreme Court found that the investigation by Kerala police was malicious, cau…

The appellant, Sirajul Hoque, was declared a foreigner by the Foreigner's Tribunal on the ground of a discrepancy in his grandfather's name and the fact that his father later resided in a different village. The High Court upheld this declaration, holding that the appellant's written statement was inadequate and failed …

Habib Ibrahim, a Pakistani national, was arrested for residing in India without a valid document. He possessed only a six‑month transit visa for Nepal and was found with a Pakistani passport but no permission to stay in India. He was charged under Section 3 read with Section 14 of the Foreigners Act, 1946, convicted by…

The Supreme Court examined a public‑interest writ petition challenging the constitutionality of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 (IMDT Act) and its 1984 Rules, which were applicable only to Assam for detecting and deporting illegal migrants. The Court held that the Act and Rules were ultra‑vi…

The appellant, Md. Rahim Ali, was declared a foreigner by the Foreigners Tribunal, Nalbari, on the basis that he failed to prove his Indian citizenship under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946. He challenged the Tribunal's order, arguing that the authorities had no material basis for the allegation of illegal migrat…

The case concerns the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by a human bomb at Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991, orchestrated by the LTTE. The Supreme Court heard appeals from 26 accused convicted by a Designated Court under TADA and IPC, along with a death reference. The Court held that the prosecuti…

The appellant, a Pakistani national and member of Lashkar‑e‑Toiba, was convicted for planning and executing a terrorist attack on the Red Fort on 22 December 2000, which killed three Indian Army soldiers. The prosecution proved the conspiracy and the murders through extensive circumstantial evidence, forensic links bet…

On 26 January 1996 a bomb exploded at the SMS Stadium in Jaipur, leading to the arrest of six accused, including Chandra Prakash, Abdul Mateen and others. The prosecution relied on the testimony of an approver (PW‑1) who implicated the accused, on material recovered from the accused’s premises (ammonium nitrate, dynami…

A Bangladeshi national was convicted under the Foreigners Act, 1946 for illegal entry into India and sentenced to two years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine. He filed a writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution challenging the conviction and seeking relief from the Supreme Court. The Court examined whether it…

The Supreme Court examined two sets of review petitions filed under Article 137 and Order XL of the Supreme Court Rules: one by four convicts sentenced to death for offences under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and the Indian Penal Code, and another by the State challenging the finding …

Basudev Dutta, an Ophthalmic Assistant employed by the West Bengal Government since 1985, was terminated in 2011 after a police verification report, filed 25 years later, labeled him ‘unsuitable’ for the post. He challenged the termination, asserting Indian citizenship based on his father’s migration certificate and ar…

The petitioners challenged the Foreigners (Tribunal) Amendment Order, 2006 which made the 1964 Foreigners (Tribunals) Order inapplicable to Assam, arguing that it contravened Articles 14, 21 and 355 of the Constitution and sought to nullify the Supreme Court's earlier judgment in Sarbananda Sonowal v. Union of India (2…

The case concerned whether a Foreign Registration Officer appointed under Rule 3 of the Registration of Foreigners Rules, 1992 must be impleaded as a party in bail applications filed by a foreign national under the Foreigners Act, 1946. The Supreme Court examined the statutory powers of the Civil Authority and the Regi…

The case concerns a review of the death sentence awarded to Mohd. Arif alias Ashfaq for the 2000 Lal Quila firing that killed three army jawans. The petitioner challenged the conviction on four grounds: the admissibility of call data records (CDRs) without a Section 65B certificate, the validity of his disclosure state…

The petitioners, who are Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card‑holders, had been allowed since 2005 to appear for the All India Pre‑Medical Test (NEET) and compete for medical seats on parity with Non‑Resident Indians (NRIs) and Indian citizens. In March 2021 the Union of India issued a notification under Section 7B(1)…

The petitioner, an OCI card‑holder and U.S. national, applied for a postgraduate medical seat through the NEET (PG) exam and was initially treated as a foreign national, securing a high percentile and being allotted a pediatrics seat in AIIMS during the mock round. Shortly before the first counselling round, the author…