{"id":63429,"date":"2025-09-14T12:23:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T06:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=63429"},"modified":"2025-09-16T15:28:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T09:58:39","slug":"enhanced-powers-of-foreigners-tribunals-under-immigration-and-foreigners-act-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/enhanced-powers-of-foreigners-tribunals-under-immigration-and-foreigners-act-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Enhanced Powers of Foreigners Tribunals under Immigration and Foreigners Act 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Foreigners Tribunals Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Union Home Ministry has notified Rules, Order, and Exemption Order under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This law regulates all matters on foreigners and immigration, replacing older legislations including the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, the Foreigners Act, 1946, and the Immigration (Carriers\u2019 Liability) Act, 2000.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Rationale Behind the New Immigration and Foreigners Act<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government introduced the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 to prevent overlap among multiple pre-Independence laws on passports, travel documents, visas, registration, and immigration.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While most provisions existed in earlier notifications, new clauses and conditions have been added to address significant changes in travel, security, and immigration that have emerged since the old Acts were enacted.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Key Provisions of the Immigration and Foreigners Rules<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The new Rules formally empower the Bureau of Immigration (BOI) to investigate immigration fraud, coordinate with states on identifying and deporting foreigners, and maintain an immigration database.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They also mandate biometric recording of all foreigners, previously limited to select visa categories.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Educational institutions must now report details of all foreign students, including semester-wise attendance and conduct, to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, premises such as resorts or clubs can be shut down if frequented by illegal migrants, alongside earlier categories of undesirable foreigners or those linked to crime.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rules also define \u201cimmigration officers\u201d as Intelligence Bureau personnel.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Provisions of the Immigration and Foreigners Order, 2025<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Immigration and Foreigners Order, 2025 grants Foreigners Tribunals (FTs), earlier unique to Assam, the <\/span><b>powers of a first-class judicial magistrate<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, enabling them to send individuals without proof of citizenship to detention or holding centres.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FTs can now issue arrest warrants if contested individuals fail to appear, with membership capped at three, and ex-parte orders open for review within 30 days.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though applicable nationwide, FTs currently operate only in Assam, where 100 are functional after the NRC process excluded 19 lakh applicants.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Order also legalises the <\/span><b>role of border forces like BSF and Assam Rifles in preventing illegal entry<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by recording biometric and demographic data before sending migrants back.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Entry refusal now includes broader grounds such as anti-national activities, terrorism, espionage, human trafficking, cybercrime, narcotics trade, financial crimes like hawala, and crimes against humanity.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) Order, 2025<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Exemption Order spares Nepalese, Bhutanese, and Tibetans from the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, while adding two new groups.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Registered Sri Lankan Tamil nationals who sought shelter in India before January 9, 2015, are exempted from the passport\/visa requirements under Section 3.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, undocumented minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan \u2014 including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians \u2014 who entered India without valid documents or whose documents expired before December 31, 2024, are exempted from penal provisions and deportation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, only these minorities can apply for long-term visas (LTVs) leading to citizenship, while the exemption for Sri Lankan Tamils does not extend to LTVs.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/what-are-the-enhanced-powers-of-foreigners-tribunals-explainer\/article70046783.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TH<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 expands Tribunal powers and sets new rules, orders, and exemptions for immigration, deportation, and visas in India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":63582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[2683,60,22,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-63429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"tag-foreigners-tribunals","9":"tag-mains-articles","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}