TIBETAN LEGAL ASSOCIATION (TLA) started its working office on 1st march 2016 at Dharamsala and so far, as many as 90 clients(including foreigner) were served . These services include giving legal opinions & advice, drafting of affidavits and pleadings of the cases, problems related to Identity Certificate (IC), Registration Certificate (RC) and Passport,appearance before the Police Station, Judicial Magistrates, representation before the Tibetan authorities like Justice Commission, Settlement Officers, making documents- affidavits, drafting of the cases and wills, assisting in the visa process /immigration documentation & translations, Identity Certificate (IC) , and matters like change of name and date of birth in RC, registration of marriage and divorces, registration of shops, Application for registration of Trademarks, etc All these services are rendered free of cost thus far.
On 7.12.2016, TLA lawyer Ms. Namgyal Tsekey made a second trip to Dehradun to represent a Tibetan Juvenile in RC case before the Juvenile Justice Board, Dehradun.
The fact of the case : A Tibetan school student was charged for using a forged Birth certificate as real while applying for new Registration Certificate under Foreigners act . The Juvenile was charge for violation of Section 420/466/468/471 IPC and section 14 of Foreigners Act . The juvenile was detained for 45 days at Child remand home and was released on bail. The juvenile approached TLA office on 29.9.2016 after having approached the CTA authorities. O 8.12.2016, TLA Lawyer Ms. Namgyal Tsekey was permitted to present the case after verification of her bar enrollment number . She is bar certified Advocate with LL.M degree from University of Mysore and Master in International law and Human Rights from American University , USA. She is a former Local Justice Commissioner and Legal counsel/adviser of Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission. She is currently a standing Senior lawyer and Board Member of TLA .
TLA lawyer drafted a 15 page petition and with the consent of the advocate on record, Mr. KS Khanduri, made presentation of the petition on 8.12.2016 to the Court. She was able to introduce and explain the concept of RC and its implication for Tibetan refugee vis a vis the Foreigners Act. She got the opportunity to argue and appraise the court of the reasons why the Court should grant stay order and of the consequences that would befall in absence of stay order. it is prayed to the Court to issue a stay order for the petitioner to complete his study in India and permit him to stay in India as Tibetan refugee by quoting various international human rights instrument such as Convention against Torture , the principle of non refoulment as embodied Bangkok Principle and in article 33 (1) of the United Nations Convention on the status of refugees, which is implicit in Article 21 of Indian Constitution as reiterated and upheld in the various Judgements of the Supreme Court such as Ktaer Abbas Habib AL Qutaifi and other vs Union of India and Others,(1996) and National Human Rights Commission vs State of Arunachal Pradesh (1996). The judgements of the District Courts of Dharamsala and High Court of HP in similar RC cases was also cited to seek a favourable order. The petition specifically prayed that the Honorable Court to issue direction to the Concerned state of Dehradun through FRO, to consider the case sympathetically on the basis of supreme Court decisions and process the issuing of RC at the earliest and also accept the school certificate as proof of date of birth in absence of the birth certificate. Further, the petition quoted section 3 of Juvenile Justice Act Rule 79(4) read with section 82/83 of IPC. Section 3 of the JJ Act is based on the Principle of presumption of innocence: Any child shall be presumed to be an innocent of any mala fide or criminal intent up to the age of eighteen years and Section 82 of IPC says nothing is an offence which is done by a child under seven years of age and Section 83 says nothing is an offence which is done by a child above seven years of age and under twelve, who has not attained sufficient maturity of understanding to judge of the nature and consequences of his conduct on that occasion.
During the oral presentation of the Petition, Judge said that this is a policy matter, to which we answered that it is a matter f Policy and law both as many courts have issued directions to the Government to consider the issue on humanitarian grounds. The Dharasmala court has even reprimanded the policy for misusing the discretionary power as reported in the attached Report of Tibet Justice Center. The Judge said he will look int to petition as there is no urgency on this RC matter right now. The next date is given as 3.1.2017.
On the same day, Ms Namgyal Tsekey and Advocate K S Khanduri, met the officer in Charge of the FRO( Tibetan section) and the updated the proceedings as required . The concerned official at FRO said that since the matter is already in the court, they will not take any initiative for processing the application for new RC without the specific order of the Court. Therefore, TLA Lawyer drafted another petition to the court to issue specific Order to processing the making of RC at the earliest.
TLA’s legal service is not only free, the travel expenses of this particular trip to Dehradun ( Rs 2500 for up & down)was also borne by Ms Namgyal Tsekey herself.