Guwahati, June 21: Unhappy with their performance, the Assam government has discontinued the services of 19 members (presiding officers) of foreigners tribunals in the state.

An official source said the decision was taken following the performance review of foreigners tribunals members by the state home department.

"During the review, the government found that the performance of 34 members was not up to the mark and a decision was taken not to extend the term of 19 of them while the remaining 15 were given a warning to improve their performance within the next six months. An official order to this effect was issued today," the source told The Telegraph.

These members were posted in foreigners tribunals in Dhubri, Goalpara, Nalbari, Barpeta, Kamrup (metro), Kamrup, Nagaon and Darrang districts.

The two-year term of these foreigners tribunal members expired on May 23 but the government extended it till June 23. The term of the remaining foreigners tribunal members has been extended for two more years.

These tribunals were set up in the state under the Foreigner (Tribunal) Order of 1964 to determine the status of citizens whose Indian nationality is found to be doubtful.

The number of foreigners tribunals was increased from 36 to 100 in 2015 following an increase in the number of cases related to alleged illegal migrants.

The source said the Sarbananda Sonowal government had laid great emphasis on strengthening the tribunals as solving the illegal migrants issue was the top agenda of the BJP in the last Assembly elections.

According to the source, the Assam government is unhappy with some of the orders passed by a section of foreigners tribunal members, where the individuals in question were declared as "not foreigners", contrary to submissions made by police.

"The state government has already challenged more than 20 such orders in Gauhati High Court," he said.

Last year, the state government constituted state and district-level committees to screen the orders of the foreigners tribunals which went in favour of the suspected illegal migrants. The state-level committee is headed by additional chief secretary (home) Tsering Y. Das, while the district-level committees comprise the respective deputy commissioners and superintendents of police.

"During screening of the foreigners tribunal orders, the prudence shown by some of the tribunal members while passing the judgments by some of the members have come under the scanner," the source said.

After the number of foreigners tribunals increased to 100, it was observed that there was a shortage of qualified persons for appointment as members of these tribunals. As a result, the government relaxed the norms for appointment of the members.

"In the past, only a serving or retired district judge and additional district judge could be appointed members of the tribunals but now any practising advocate who has completed 55 years of age as on April 1, 2015, and completed 10 years of legal practice can apply for the post," the source said.

"However, it is mandatory that the candidates should possess fair knowledge of the official language of the state and its historical background giving rise to the foreigners problem," he said.

Parliamentary affairs minister Chandra Mohan Patowary had told the Assembly in February that between May 2016 and December 2016, a total of 4,022 people were declared foreigners by the tribunals.

The minister said 79,771 persons have been detected in the state as foreigners since 1986, of whom 29,729 have been deported. He said the police were conducting investigations into more than six lakh cases related to foreigners till October 2016 and of these, more than four lakh were referred to tribunals. Altogether 2,01,928 cases are pending with the tribunals, he had said.

The Assam Accord signed in 1985 between AASU and the Centre had fixed March 25, 1971 as the cut-off date for detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Assam.