Whether Section 6A of the Citizenship Act 1955 suffers from any constitutional infirmity? This will be decided by the Supreme Court after hearing a batch of petitions on this matter from November 7. The pleas against Section 6A primarily challenge provisions of the Assam Accord which formed the basis of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, published in 2019. In September, a five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud passed procedural directions in the batch of petitions challenging Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955. In January, the apex court observed that the primary question in the case was “whether Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 suffers from any constitutional infirmity.”
The Rajiv Gandhi government signed an accord with Assam student leaders in 1985 which required amendment to Section 6 of the Citizenship Act following a prolonged agitation against illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in the state. The amended Section 6A provided that “all persons of Indian origin who came before the 1st day of January, 1966 to Assam from the specified territory (including such of those whose names were included in the electoral rolls used for the purposes of the General Election to the House of the People held in 1967) and who have been ordinarily resident in Assam since the dates of their entry into Assam shall be deemed to be citizens of India as from the 1st day of January, 1966”.
According to clause 5 of the Assam Accord January 1, 1966, shall serve as the base cut-off date for the detection and deletion of “foreigners”. However, it also makes provisions for the regularisation of individuals who arrived in Assam after that date and up till March 24, 1971. So, Section 6A makes March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for entry into the state, making those people who entered the state after that date “illegal immigrants”. Assam is the only state in India to have such a cut-off date. The Bench will now decide on the constitutional validity of Section 6 A. The Assam NRC of 2019 was conducted on the basis of provisions of Section 6 A.
Notably, Section 6A stands in contrast to Section 3 of the Citizenship Act. The plea challenging Section 6A wants 1951 to be made as the cut-off date for inclusion in the National Register of Citizens instead of 1971. The fundamental rights-related questions were concerned with testing Section 6A against Article 14 (whether the provision treats Assam differently to other border states), Article 21 (whether the lives and personal liberty of Assamese citizens have been affected by the influx of illegal immigrants), and Article 29(1) (whether the right of a minority to “conserve” language, script and culture has been threatened by the influx). So the ball is now in the Supreme Court to decide a citizenship matter that has so much riding on it.
