Supreme Court will advance the Assam Accord by considering the challenge to the constitutional validity of the amendment added in 1985 to Section 6A of the Citizenship Act. The judgment on the petitions was given on Thursday. In 1985, an amendment was made to the Constitution to advance the Assam Accord, utilizing this section.
Five judges of the Supreme Court’s Constitution Bench invalidated the Citizenship Act and upheld the Constitutional validity of Section 6A in the decision. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices Suryakant, MM Sundresh, and Manoj Mishra ruled in favor, while Justice JB Pardiwala dissented.
Before making a decision, the bench listened to statements from R Venkataramani, Tushar Mehta, Shyam Divan, Kapil Sibal, and other senior advocates over a period of four days. There were 17 petitions challenging the constitutionality of Section 6A. Section 6A was added as a unique provision to address the citizenship of individuals mentioned in the Citizenship Act of the Constitution as per the Assam Accord.
In an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the Central government stated that it is unable to accurately track the amount of illegal migration of foreigners into India due to the secretive nature of such migration. On December 7, the highest court ordered the Central government to provide information on migrants who have been given Indian citizenship under Section 6A (2) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the actions taken to stop illegal migration into India.
The sworn statement indicated that a total of 14,346 foreign individuals were removed from the nation from 2017 to 2022. During the period from January 1966 to March 1971, 17,861 migrants who came to Assam were given Indian citizenship according to this rule. Reports indicated that 32,381 individuals were identified as foreigners as per the directives of Foreigners Tribunals from 1966 to 1971.
A special provision, Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, was added to address citizenship issues of individuals mentioned in the Assam Accord. Individuals who migrated to Assam from designated regions, such as Bangladesh, between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971, and are currently living there, are required to enroll for citizenship according to Section 18 of the amended Citizenship Act of 1985.
This law provision designates March 25, 1971 as the ‘cut-off date’ for individuals immigrating to Assam from Bangladesh.