On December 5, a five-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud commenced hearing on a batch of petitions to examine the constitutional validity of section 6A of the Citizenship Act relating to illegal immigrants in Assam. Besides the CJI, Justices Surya Kant, MM Sundresh, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra are part of the bench as well.
The submissions heard were advanced by senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the petitioners, in the matter.
Advocate Divan is of the opinion that Section 6A undervalues the core essence of the Constitution. Section 6A of the Citizenship Act was put in place to represent a special provision to cover the citizenship of people under the umbrella of the Assam Accord. Assam accord is a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed by the then Rajiv Gandhi Government. He further asserts that the application of the provision should be spread uniformly across the country or equally to all States bordering Bangladesh. He said, “There has to be a corresponding duty to ensure that people are not reducing persons living on the border to a minority”.
This unique provision elucidates that those who came to Assam on or after January 1, 1966 but before March 25, 1971 from specified territories such as Bangladesh, as per the Citizenship Act amended in 1985, and since then are residents of Assam and 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.
While hearing the matter in September, the top court had said the title of the proceeding shall be, “In Re: Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955.”
“During the course of the hearing, it has been agreed that the contesting parties shall consist of (i) those who are challenging the constitutional validity of section 6A of the Citizenship Act 1955 on the one hand; and (ii) those including the Union of India and the State of Assam who are supporting the validity of the provision,” the bench said so in its September 20 order.
The bench had instructed the top court registry to provide scanned soft copies of the complete set of pleadings filed on the issue. A number of 17 petitions, including the one filed by the Assam Public Works in 2009, are pending on the issue in the top court.
The Assam Accord signed by the All Assam Students Union, Assam Government and the Government of India on August 15, 1985 was to filter and deport the foreigners. Section 6A was inserted to the Citizenship Act to grant citizenship to people who have migrated to Assam.
A Guwahati-based NGO challenged section 6A in 2012 and labeled it as arbitrary, discriminatory and unconstitutional claiming that it provides different dates for regularising illegal migrants in Assam. A two-judge bench, thus, had referred the matter to the Constitution bench in 2014.
