The Supreme Court Constitution Bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud and also comprising of Justice AS Bopanna, Justice MM Sundresh, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra shall commence final hearing in challenge to Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 from Oct 17th 2023.
The constitutional validity of the provision that was inserted by way of an amendment in 1985 in furtherance of the Assam Accord stands challenged before the Supreme Court.
It is a special provision for persons covered by the Assam Accord and provides that the people who entered India between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971, and have been living in Assam, would be allowed to register themselves as citizens of India. Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha, a Guwahati based civil society organisation had challenged Section 6A way back in 2012 on grounds of being discriminatory, arbitrary, and illegal insofar as it provides for different cut-off dates for regularising illegal migrants who entered Assam and the rest of India.
It had demanded updation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) based on the details incorporated in the NRC prepared in 1951 as opposed to electoral rolls prior to 1971.
Eventually, other organisations posed a challenge to the constitutional validity of Section 6A itself.
The Bench today was assembeled to pass procedural directions and stated that the title of the proceedings shall be– "In Re Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955".
In a previous hearing in January this year, the question of law was framed to be as to "Whether Section 6A of the Citizenship Act suffers from any constitutional infirmity?"
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