SC to hear on November 7 pleas challenging Section 6A of Citizenship Act

The Supreme Court on Thursday posted for hearing on November 7 pleas challenging the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act inserted by way of an amendment in 1985 in furtherance of the Assam AccordA fivejudge Constitution bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices AS Bopanna MM Sundresh JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra will hear the case on November 7 which was originally listed for hearing on October 17Earlier the matter was listed for October 17 however since the next week is a miscellaneous week in the apex court the matter will now be heard on November 7Today Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that the court had fixed the matter for hearing on October 17 but yesterday we got to know that the entire week is a miscellaneous weekThat matter will go to November 7 said the CJIOn the last hearing the apex court had said the title of the proceedings shall be In Re Section 6A of the Citizenship Act 1955On December 17 2014 matter relating to citizenship in Assam was referred to the fivejudge Constitution bench On April 19 2017 the apex court constituted the bench to hear the caseThe National Register for Citizens NRC a list of Indian citizens containing all necessary information for their identification was first formulated following the 1951 national censusThe Assam NRC is meant to identify illegal immigrants in the State who migrated from Bangladesh after March 25 1971In 1985 the Indian government and the representatives of the Assam Movement negotiated and drafted the Assam Accord and created categories of immigrantsThe NRC exercise in Assam was carried out under Section 6A of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the rules framed in the Assam Accord 1985Section 6A of the Act was introduced to give effect to the Assam Accord It provides the framework to recognise migrants in Assam as Indian citizens or to expel them based on the date of their migrationThe 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 in 1985 and since then are residents of Assam must register themselves under section 18 for citizenship Therefore the provision fixes March 25 1971 as the cutoff date for granting citizenship to Bangladeshi migrants in AssamIn 2013 the apex court directed the State of Assam to update the NRCOn July 30 2018 the final draft of the Assam NRC was released and 4007 lakh applicants out of 329 crores were excluded from the NRC list creating uncertainty about their citizenship statusLater the apex court said that this was merely a draft NRC and no action could be taken based on it On August 31 2019 the final NRC list was published and 19 lakh persons were excludedAssam Sanmilita Mahasangha a Guwahatibased civil society organisation along with others had challenged Section 6A way back in 2012 while arguing that Section 6A is discriminatory arbitrary and illegal so far as it provides for different cutoff dates for regularising illegal migrants who entered Assam and the rest of IndiaThe Bangladesh Liberation War which led to the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan witnessed a massive influx of migrants to India Even prior to when Bangladesh gained independence from East Pakistan in 1971 migration had started to IndiaOn March 19 1972 Bangladesh and India entered into a treaty for friendship cooperation and peaceThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever