The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will examine the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act relating to illegal immigrants in Assam and begin hearing the petitions after concluding matters arising out of the split in the Shiv Sena. Section 6A was added to the Citizenship Act 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 areas including Bangladesh, as per the Citizenship Amendment Act of 1985, and since then are residents of Assam, shall You will have to register yourself under section 18 for citizenship.
Consequently, the provision fixes March 25, 1971, as the cut-off date for granting citizenship to Bangladeshi migrants in Assam. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud initially said it would hear the petitions on February 14 after hearing matters related to the Maharashtra political crisis arising out of the split in the Shiv Sena.
“Whether Section 6A of the Citizenship Act suffers from any constitutional infirmity,” the bench asked, clarifying that this would be the main issue to be decided and would include all other constitutional questions that may arise in the matter.
A bench of Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha said that determination of one issue does not preclude the bench from framing other issues later.
The bench said that the petitioners will argue first, then the central government and then the intervenors and others can present their arguments. “Today we will not be able to start the hearing. We will hear it some other day.
The apex court had on December 13 asked the counsel for the contesting parties to decide the issues of stay in a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act relating to illegal immigrants in Assam. The bench had said, “Counsel shall segregate the matters which come up before this Court for decision in different categories and the order in which they are to be argued,” We shall place it for directions.
The bench had directed the registry of the apex court to provide scanned soft copies of the entire set of petitions filed on the issue. As many as 17 petitions, including one filed by the Assam Public Works in 2009, are pending in the apex court on the issue. Earlier, the Constitution Bench had directed the parties to file a joint compilation consisting of “written submissions”; example; and any other documentary material which may be relied upon at the time of hearing.”
“A common index shall be prepared in three different volumes of the above compilations,” it had said. It had appointed advocate Fuzail Ahmed Ayyubi, assisting Sibal, and advocate Diksha Rai, appearing along with Attorney General R Venkataramani, as nodal counsel to ensure that soft copies of the compilation are prepared and distributed to the bench and are delivered to the counsel appearing on their behalf. Election contesting parties.
Under the Assam Accord signed by the All Assam Students’ Union, the Government of Assam and the Government of India on August 15, 1985 to detect and deport foreigners, Section 6A was added to the Citizenship Act to provide citizenship to people who had migrated to Assam . A Guwahati-based NGO challenged Section 6A in 2012, calling it arbitrary, discriminatory and unconstitutional, claiming that it provided for different dates for regularizing illegal immigrants in Assam. In 2014, a two-judge bench referred the matter to a constitution bench.
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