PAN card, voter ID not enough to prove citizenship: HC

Guwahati, July 2: A PAN card and an Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC), by themselves, are not sufficient to establish Indian citizenship, the Gauhati High Court has held while dismissing a petition challenging an order that declared an Assam resident to be a foreigner.

In its judgment, a Division Bench comprising Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Shamima Jahan observed that computer-generated NRC legacy data cannot be relied upon unless accompanied by the certificate mandated under Section 65B of the Evidence Act, 1872, which governs the admissibility of electronic records.

The case pertained to a petition filed by Aminul Hoque, who had challenged the February 28, 2019 order of the Foreigners Tribunal, Guwahati, declaring him a foreigner.

Before both the Tribunal and the High Court, Hoque claimed that his family had been residing in Assam for generations. In support of his claim, he produced extracts from the 1951 NRC, electoral rolls from 1966 onwards, a 1973 land sale deed, his PAN card, EPIC, school certificates and family documents.

The High Court observed that while minor discrepancies in the names of ancestors may not, by themselves, defeat a citizenship claim, the burden remained on the petitioner to establish a credible and continuous link with ancestors whose presence in India before the prescribed cut-off date is supported by admissible evidence.

“It is well settled that PAN card and EPIC are not proof of citizenship,” the Bench observed.

The Court further held that since a PAN card is issued on the basis of self-declaration, the petitioner ought to have produced records from the Income Tax Department to substantiate the entries contained in it.

“The NRC legacy data and image identity documents relied upon by the petitioner are electronic records and, in the absence of the certificate required under Section 65B of the Evidence Act—now corresponding to Section 63(4) of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023—cannot be treated as admissible evidence,” the Bench added.

The judges also referred to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Anvar P.V. vs P.K. Basheer (2014) on the evidentiary value of electronic records.

The petitioner was represented by advocate M.U. Mahmud, while B. Deka, Central Government Counsel, appeared for the respondents.

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