Justices M.S. Ramesh and V. Lakshminarayanan decide to await the decision to be taken by the foreigners tribunal in Assam regarding his nationality Updated – August 29, 2025 07:56 pm IST – CHENNAI
[29/08, 22:25] Sekarreporter: http://youtube.com/post/UgkxsZULvXoZAmnEG3ZU4YpRfgT02p6eNPOB?si=lHs2ZGMdOCLhzWCO
[29/08, 22:25] Sekarreporter: [29/08, 22:10] Sekarreporter: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/afghan-national-with-aadhaar-card-or-an-indian-a-curious-case-before-madras-high-court/article69988851.ece
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Afghan national with Aadhaar card or an Indian: A curious case before Madras High Court
Justices M.S. Ramesh and V. Lakshminarayanan decide to await the decision to be taken by the foreigners tribunal in Assam regarding his nationality
Updated – August 29, 2025 07:56 pm IST – CHENNAI
Mohamed Imranullah S.Mohamed Imranullah S.
The picture of ‘Dilowar Khan’ from a passport. Photo: Special Arrangement
The Madras High Court has come across a curious case of an individual who claims to be an Indian born in Assam, but the police suspect him to be an Afghan national who had fraudulently obtained an Indian passport, Aadhaar card, birth certificate, driving licence, PAN card and voter’s identity card too.
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A Division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and V. Lakshminarayanan is seized of a writ petition filed by Md. Dilowar Khan, who had challenged his detention by the Tamil Nadu government at the Tiruchi special camp pursuant to his arrest at the Chennai international airport on December 15, 2024.
The fake passport investigation wing of the Chennai Central Crime Branch (CCB) had arrested the petitioner on his return from Dubai, on the basis of a complaint lodged by an Assistant Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (ARRO) serving under the Bureau of Immigration (BoI) at the Chennai airport.
The immigration officials had suspected the petitioner after finding two Afghan visas stamped in his Indian passport. Immediately, they verified his credentials with the bio web database of BoI and found his real name to be Lahor Abdul Qayum of Afghanistan and not Dilowar Khan of Assam as claimed by him.
The database also showed he had visited India for the first time, using a tourist visa, from Afghanistan in September 2018 and departed to his home country in December 2018. The Afghan passport used during the first visit had shown his date of birth to be December 5, 1981.
Subsequently, he had come to India again, using a medical visa and a new Afghan passport which showed his date of birth to be January 5, 1987. After the second visit, he had settled down in Assam and obtained every other Indian identity document through fraudulent means, the ARRO said.
Pursuant to his arrest by the CCB under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code as well as the Passports Act of 1967, he had obtained bail on February 13, 2025. In the meantime, the Tamil Nadu government issued a Government Order (G.O.) on February 6, 2025, for detaining him at the Tiruchi special camp.
Assailing the G.O issued under the Foreigners Act of 1946, his counsel M. Velmurugan contended his client was very much an Indian national who had been a victim of mistaken identity. He said, the petitioner was born to Musha Khan and Jarina Begum at Nalbari in Assam on March 20, 1986.
However, his birth certificate was obtained only in 2006 because of the ignorance of his parents regarding the necessity to obtain the document immediately after birth, he said. The petitioner also claimed to have obtained Aadhaar card, driving licence and Indian passport in March, July and September 2021 respectively.
Claiming to have got registered as a money lender under the Assam Money Lenders Act of 1934; the petitioner, in his affidavit, said, he had also voted during the 2021 Assam Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He had visted Afghanistan and Dubai in 2023 and 2024.
On the other hand, Additional Public Prosecutor A. Damodaran told the court the CCB had now written to the Regional Passport Officer in Guwahati to ascertain whether the fingerprints of the detainee matches with the fingerprints collected at the time of issuance of the Indian passport.
After recording his submission, the judges asked Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan, assisted by central government senior panel counsel Gopika Nambiar, to coordinate with the passport officials in Guwahati and ensure the details were shared with the Chennai police.
They also took note that the foreigners’ tribunal was not operational anywhere in the country but for Assam and the Tamil Nadu government had already written to the Nalbari Collector for referring the petitioner’s issue to the tribunal over there for determining whether he was an illegal immigrant or a citizen.
To await the outcome of these proceedings, the judge adjourned the writ petition before them by 12 weeks.
Published – August 29, 2025 07:53 pm IST
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