The Supreme Court on Monday said it will commence hearings from December first week to examine the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, which pertains to illegal immigrants in Assam.
Section 6A in the Citizenship Act was incorporated as a special provision to address the citizenship status of individuals covered by the Assam Accord. This provision mandates that those who arrived in Assam on or after January 1, 1966, but before March 25, 1971, from specified territories, including Bangladesh, according to the 1985 amendment to the Citizenship Act, must register themselves for citizenship under section 18 if they have been residing in Assam since that time.
A bench led by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud deferred the matter at the request of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who stated, “I am mentioning on my behalf and on behalf of the Attorney General for India. The case coming up tomorrow is the Citizenship Amendment Act. If the case can be deferred a bit…This is the last working week before Diwali, and we just came out of one Constitution bench, and, therefore, we need some time.”
Following the discussion of the availability of all the counsels, the court scheduled the matter for hearing in December first week. A five-judge Constitution bench was scheduled to hear the matter on Tuesday.