“Fulbanu Begum was declared as ‘not a foreigner’ by the Foreigners’ Tribunal in 2015. Five-years later, this decision was reversed by the Tribunal on the basis of a letter received from the government. Subsequently, Begum was declared as a ‘foreigner’ without a notice. She was not even given a chance to represent herself!”
What we do
The Parichay Case Law Database is India’s first and only database on citizenship law and allied issues. It was established in September’21 to advance the understanding of citizenship law in India. Accordingly, the project studies, tracks and publishes key decisions (orders and judgments) on this subject from High Courts and the Supreme Court of India. We create detailed case-notes that provide a comprehensive and critical analysis of these cases. In addition, the project has been tracking the High Court of Gauhati’s adjudication on citizenship since January’22. We hope that this project will support the law and policy efforts of lawyers, activists, researchers, judicial and government officials. In particular, we hope that our work will contribute to the research for the petitions that are filed to improve the lives of all those who are at the risk of statelessness.
Methodology
The Parichay Tracker relied on a combination of open access and subscription based platforms. Data mining was carried out using the ‘judgments and orders’ feature and the E-Courts portal of the High Court of Gauhati. We also used Indian Kanoon, live law, SCCOnline and Manupatra.
We filter orders and judgments by including those that created on a new precedent. We also include decisions that applied a prior precedent to a new fact situation. As a result, the decisions that we select are either precedents or cases that apply precedents to new fact situations.