4. Violations of Natural Justice and the Right of Due Process Advocate ZH pointed out that inquiry officers involved in older cases may be unavailable due to death, mental incapacity, or transfer. FT members frequently argue that summoning them would waste time. Hussain said, “References sometimes are very old... calling them would be like wasting time,” with members emphasizing that the priority should be for the opposing party to “satisfy the burden” within the 60-day limit imposed by the Foreigners Tribunal Act. ZH described a “trend” in the Tribunals to reject preliminary objections and expedite cases in a summary manner. He recounted that filing preliminary objections has become futile, as FT members dismiss such motions to avoid prolonging the case. ZH observed, “No point of filing preliminary objections because nobody is going to agree to it, and would ask for a Written Statement because they don’t want to give the opportunity to drag the case on for long.” But applications to access the inquiry report in the FTs are routinely dismissed or simply not entertained, and objections to the absence of inquiry are recorded, at best, only as part of the final order, without any reasoned determination. Legal practitioners repeatedly emphasise that preliminary objections—such as the absence of material, contradictions in the referral, or findings in favour of citizenship within the inquiry itself—are treated as “inconvenient” or “disruptive” by FT members. They are not viewed as jurisdictional matters requiring prior adjudication but instead as distractions that “waste time.” Advocate SD attempted to challenge the inquiry by requesting the FT to allow him to examine 90 the Inquiry Officer, but this request was denied. He told us: “I did want to examine the Inquiry Officer but that was not allowed” and “I asked on that very date... that this is what has happened and the entire inquiry is not true and it’s false and I want to examine the Enquiry officer so kindly issue summons.” The FT, however, dismissed his request, stating, “we don’t issue summons to anyone and it’s not our lookout.” Advocate MI requested the FT to summon the Local Border Officer (LBO) and other investigative officers to question them about the enquiry’s accuracy. His request was denied. MI told us: “No tribunal has till now summoned the LBO... the investigation has not been fair.”