The Supreme Court said
it will commence hearing on December 5 to examine the constitutional validity
of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act relating to illegal immigrants in Assam.
Section 6A in the
Citizenship Act was inserted as a special provision to deal with the
citizenship of people covered by the Assam Accord.
The provision
provides that those who have come to Assam on or after January 1, 1966 but
before March 25, 1971 from specified territories, including Bangladesh, as per
the Citizenship Act amended in 1985, and since then are residents of Assam must
register themselves under section 18 for citizenship.
As a result, the
provision fixes March 25, 1971 as the cut-off date for granting citizenship to
Bangladeshi migrants in Assam.
A Bench headed by
Chief Justice DY Chandrachud deferred the matter after Solicitor General Tushar
Mehta mentioned the matter.
“I am mentioning
on my behalf and on behalf of the Attorney General for India. The case coming
up tomorrow is the Citizenship Amendment Act. If the case can be deferred a
bit…This is the last working week before Diwali and we just came out of one
Constitution bench and, therefore, we need some time,” the SG said.
The Bench then
discussed the availability of all the counsels and posted the matter for
hearing on December 1.
A five-judge
Constitution bench was scheduled to hear the matter on Tuesday.
PTI
