Supreme Court
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has today given a major verdict on the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act. The court has upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act. Actually, Section 6A is an important provision of the Citizenship Act 1955. It was implemented under the Assam Accord. This provision grants citizenship to immigrants who entered Assam before March 24, 1971.
As we know, there has been a problem of illegal immigrants in Assam for a long time. Especially a large number of people from Bangladesh crossed the border and came to India. The problem of migrants was increasing. Section 6A was added to the law following the Assam Accord between the Assam Students Union and the Government of India in 1985. The purpose of doing this was to clarify the identity and regulation of foreigners living in Assam.
Two major cut-off dates
Two major cut-off dates have been fixed under 6A. First, citizenship will be provided to all people of Indian origin who entered Assam before January 1, 1966. The second cut off date is that people entering Assam from January 1, 1966 to March 24, 1971 will be given citizenship. The Supreme Court challenged Section 6A, saying that setting a separate cut-off for citizenship for Assam is a violation of Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.
Supreme Court upheld Section 6A
The Supreme Court, in a majority verdict, upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act. A five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice Y. Chandrachud said that the Assam Accord is a political solution to the problem of illegal migration. Section 6A was added to the Citizenship Act as a special provision to deal with citizenship matters of people covered under the Assam Accord.
While writing his decision, the Chief Justice upheld the validity of Section 6A and said that in view of the small size of Assam’s land and the lengthy process to identify foreigners, the rate of arrival of migrants in this state is higher than other states. Justice Surya Kant, writing the judgment on his own behalf and Justice MM Sundaresh and Justice Manoj Mishra, agreed with the Chief Justice and said that Parliament has the legislative capacity to implement this provision. The majority decision of the Supreme Court held that March 25, 1971, was the correct time limit for entry into Assam and granting of citizenship. Regarding Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, the Supreme Court said that the presence of different ethnic groups in a state does not mean violation of Article 29(1).
Justice Pardiwala declared it unconstitutional
However, Justice Pardiwala disagreed and declared Section 6A unconstitutional. The bench rejected the petitions questioning the constitutional validity of Section 6A. Section 6A of the Citizenship Act provides for granting Indian citizenship to illegal immigrants who came to Assam between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971. Most of these illegal immigrants have come from Bangladesh. This provision was included in 1985 after the signing of the Assam Accord between the central government led by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the ‘All Assam Students Union’. (input language)
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