The Supreme Court on December 5 will examine the constitutional validity of section 6A of the Citizenship Act relating to illegal immigrants in Assam. Section 6A in the Citizenship Act was inserted as a special provision to deal with the citizenship of people covered by the Assam Accord.
A five-judge constitution bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices Surya Kant, M M Sundresh, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra would take up the matter for hearing on Tuesday.
The provision provides that those who have come to Assam on or after January 1, 1966 but before March 25, 1971 from specified territories, including Bangladesh, as per the Citizenship Act amended in 1985, and since then are residents of Assam must register themselves under section 18 for citizenship.
As a result, the provision fixes March 25, 1971 as the cut-off date for granting citizenship to Bangladeshi migrants in Assam. Earlier, a two-judge bench had referred the matter to the Constitution bench in 2014.
The Supreme Court is hearing a plea filed by Guwahati-based NGO challenging section 6A in 2012, terming it arbitrary, discriminatory and unconstitutional, claiming it provides different dates for regularising illegal migrants in Assam.