Supreme Court Upholds Constitutionality Of Section 6A Of Citizenship Act In Assam
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 which granted citizenship to immigrants who entered Assam before January 1, 1966. The Section 6A was introduced in 1985 to allow refugees from Bangladesh who entered India between 1966-1971, to register as Indian citizens.
The five bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had upheld the section by a 4:1 majority with Justice Pardiwala dissenting.
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The judgment has come on the petition that contented that the arrival of Bangladeshi refugees had impacted the demographic balance of Assam. The bench also included Justices Surya Kant, MM Sundresh and Manoj Misra.
Chief Justice of India Chandrachud, reacting to the majority judgment, said the enactment of Section 6A was a political solution to a unique problem faced by Assam because the huge influx of illegal immigrants to the state after the creation of Bangladesh seriously threatened its culture and demography.
“The central government could have extended the act to other areas as well, but did not do so because it was unique to Assam. The number of migrants coming to Assam and their impact on culture etc. is higher in Assam. The impact of 40 lakh migrants in Assam is more than that of 57 lakh in West Bengal because the land area in Assam is less than that of West Bengal,” the Chief Justice said.
However, the ruling will not apply to the migrants who had arrived after March 25, 1971.
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The Assam Accord was signed between the centre and representatives of the Assam government on August 15, 1985. This was made in response to the massive refugee influx during the Bangladesh liberation war. As a humanitarian measure, Section 6A was then added to the Citizenship Act which will allow the migrants to obtain Indian citizenship.
Justice Pardiwala, in his dissenting judgment, declared 6A as unconstitutional. He had said that the legislature could have simply conferred citizenship to anyone who entered before 1971 and the creation of statutory category from 1966 to 1971 was in view of the upcoming election in the state.
