The constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will hear on November 1 the pleas challenging the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act relating to illegal immigrants in Assam.
The Bench, comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, M.R. Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli, and P.S. Narasimha, listed the matter for hearing on November 1. The court was hearing the matter challenging Section 6A of the citizenship act, which was inserted by an amendment in 1985 in furtherance of the Assam Accord. The Assam Accord was a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed between representatives of the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam Movement. It was signed in the presence of then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in New Delhi on 15 August,1985.
The core point of the accord was the identification and deportation of illegal immigrants from Assam, for which the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) had been protesting since 1979.Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, was inserted by an amendment in 1985 of the Assam Accord, which classified “illegal” immigrants of Indian origin who came into Assam from Bangladesh into three groups.