What are Foreigners Tribunals’ new powers?

Context: 

Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025

Rationale

• Repeals 4 older Acts:

  • Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920

  • Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939

  • Foreigners Act, 1946

  • Immigration (Carriers’ Liability) Act, 2000

• Aim: single law to regulate passports, visas, registration, immigration, entry/exit of foreigners.

• Avoid multiplicity, update pre-Independence laws.

Immigration and Foreigners Rules, 2025

1. Bureau of Immigration (BOI)

   • Legally designated for first time.

   • Roles: examine fraud, deport/restrict foreigners, maintain immigration database, coordinate with States.

2. Biometric data

   • Mandatory for all foreigners (earlier limited to few visa categories).

3. Educational institutions

   • Must inform FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office) about foreign students.

   • Provide semester-wise academic performance, attendance, and conduct reports.

4. Civil authority powers

   • Can close premises (resorts, clubs, entertainment spaces) if frequented by:

     • undesirable foreigners, criminals, unlawful group members, or

     • illegal migrants (new addition).

5. Immigration officer

   • Defined in law: officers deputed from Intelligence Bureau (IB).

Immigration and Foreigners Order, 2025

1. Foreigners Tribunals (FTs)

   • Earlier only in Assam.

   • New powers:

     • Same powers as First-Class Judicial Magistrate.

     • Can send people to detention/holding centres if they fail to prove citizenship.

     • The 2025 Order that replaces the Foreigners (Tribunal) Order, 1964 empowers FTs to issue arrest warrants if an individual whose nationality has been contested fails to appear in person.

2. Status in Assam

   • Earlier: 11 IMDTs (converted to FTs after SC scrapped IMDT Act, 1983 in 2005).

   • Current: 100 FTs operational.

   • Expanded after NRC 2019 (19 lakh excluded out of 3.29 crore).

   • Final NRC still pending; rejection slips not yet issued.

3. Structural changes

   • Earlier, the FTs could have unspecified number of members, now the number of members has been capped at three, and the ex-parte orders can be set aside if the appellant files the review within 30 days. 

   • FTs are functional only in Assam. In other States, an illegal migrant is produced before a local court.

4. Border security provisions

   • BSF, Assam Rifles, Coast Guard can legally:

     • stop illegal entrants,

     • record biometrics/demographics,

     • push back across border.

   • Earlier done only via MHA executive orders.

Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) Order, 2025

Exempted groups:

1. Nepalese, Bhutanese, Tibetans.

2. Sri Lankan Tamils

   • Registered nationals sheltered in India up to 9 Jan 2015.

   • Exempt from requirement of passport/visa.

   • But not eligible for Long-Term Visas (LTVs) or citizenship.

3. Six minority communities (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, Christians) from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan.

   • Entered India before 31 Dec 2024.

   • Exempt from penal provisions and deportation.

   • Eligible for LTVs → pathway to citizenship.

Key Points

• FTs’ new powers: quasi-judicial, can arrest, detain, deport.

• Biometric mandate: extended to all foreigners.

• Education monitoring: new compliance by institutions.

• Assam focus: 100 FTs, NRC-linked, capped members.

• Exemptions: Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Sri Lankan Tamils (till 2015, limited), 6 minorities from 3 countries (till 2024, with LTV).