SC nod for Sec. 6A of Citizenship Act for citizenship to immigrants

PTI New Delhi: In a significant judgement, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act which grants Indian citizenship to immigrants from Bangladesh who entered Assam before March 25, 1971. Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices Surya Kant, M M Sundresh, and Manoj Misra further underscored the necessity for more robust policy measures to curb illegal immigration. Section 6A was inserted in 1985 into the Citizenship Act of 1955 following the signing of the Assam accord between the then Rajiv Gandhi government at the Centre and the agitating groups led by Prafulla Mahanta including All Assam Students Union in the state. The verdict is believed to give a boost to those opposed to grant of Indian citizenship to immigrants who entered Assam after March 25, 1971. According to the provision, all those who came to Assam on or after January 1, 1966, but before March 25, 1971, from Bangladesh at the time of commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1985, and since then are residents of Assam, can register for Indian citizenship.

As a result, the provision fixes March 25, 1971, as the cut-off date for granting citizenship to migrants. Holding the cut-off date of March 25, 1971 as rational, the CJI, writing for himself, said Section 6A was included with the objective of reducing the influx of migrants to India. CJI Chandrachud said Section 6A was not violative of Articles 6 and 7 of the Constitution, which stipulates a cut-off date for conferring citizenship to migrants from east and west Pakistan at the “commencement of the Constitution". "The Assam Accord was a political solution to the issue of growing migration and Section 6A was a legislative solution. Section 6A must not be read detached from the previous legislation enacted by Parliament to deal with the problem of influx of migrants of Indian origin... Section 6A is one more statutory intervention in the long list of legislation that balances the humanitarian needs of migrants of Indian origin and the impact of such migration on economic and cultural needs of Indian states," he wrote.

The CJI said though other states such as West Bengal (2216.7 kilometre), Meghalaya (443 kilometre), Tripura (856 kilometre) and Mizoram (318 kilometre) share a larger border with Bangladesh compared to Assam (263 kilometre), the magnitude of influx to Assam and its impact on the cultural and rights of the Assamese and Tribal populations was higher. Noting the data on record, the CJI said the total number of immigrants in Assam was approximately 40 lakh, 57 lakh in West Bengal, 30,000 in Meghalaya and 3.25 lakh in Tripura, the impact of migrants in Assam may conceivably be greater than other places because of its's lesser population and land area compared to West Bengal. "Since the migration from East Pakistan to Assam was in great numbers after the partition of India and since the migration from East Pakistan would increase, the yardstick has nexus with the objects of reducing migration and conferring citizenship to migrants of Indian origin... Section 6A is neither under-inclusive nor over-inclusive," he wrote.