SC upholds constitutional validity of Section 6A of Citizenship Act

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955.

A Constitution Bench, headed by CJI D. Y. Chandrachud, was dealing with a clutch of petitions challenging the vires of Section 6A, which was inserted to give effect to the Assam Accord and formed the basis of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam in 2019.

In December last year, the five-judge Bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant, M.M. Sundresh, J. B. Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, reserved its decision after hearing oral arguments from both sides.

The majority upheld the constitutional validity of the impugned provision, while, Justice Pardiwala, in his minority opinion, struck down Section 6A of the Citizenship Act with prospective effect.

During the hearing, the Supreme Court had asked the Union government to inform it about the administrative steps taken to prevent the inflow of illegal immigrants into Indian territory in northeastern states, particularly from Assam.

It had called for a common affidavit from the Union and Assam governments about the number of Bangladeshi immigrants granted citizenship in Assam between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971, under section 6A (2) of the Citizenship Act, 1955.

In response, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that illegal immigrants entered the country in a clandestine and surreptitious manner, and therefore, it is not possible to collect accurate data on such people.

Earlier, the top court had observed that the primary question in the case was "whether Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 suffers from any constitutional infirmity".

The amended Section 6A provided that "all persons of Indian origin who came before the 1st day of January 1966 to Assam from the specified territory (including such of those whose names were included in the electoral rolls used for the General Election to the House of the People held in 1967) and who have been ordinarily resident in Assam since the dates of their entry into Assam shall be deemed to be citizens of India as from the 1st day of January 1966".