Section 6A of Citizenship Act: Constitution Bench, in majority judgment, upholds validity

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act of 1955, which deals with the grant of Indian citizenship to immigrants who are covered by the Assam Accord. [In Re: Section 6A Citizenship Act 1955]

As per Section 6A, people who entered India between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971 and have been living in Assam, will be allowed to register themselves as citizens of India.

A Constitution Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices Surya Kant, MM Sundresh, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra upheld the validity of the provision in a 4:1 majority, with Justice Pardiwala dissenting.

While reading out his separate judgment concurring with the majority verdict penned by Justice Kant, the CJI said,

“The Central government could have extended the application of the Act to other areas, but it was not done because it was unique to the magnitude of Assam.”

On the argument that the provision would infringe upon Article 29(1) of the Constitution, which safeguards the right of persons to have a distinct language, script or culture of their own and the right to conserve the same, the Court held,

“…mere presence of different ethnic groups in a state does not mean infringement of Article 29(1)…petitioner has to prove that one ethnic group is not able to protect their own language and culture just because of the presence of another ethnic group.”

While reading out the majority judgment, Justice Kant said, We cannot allow one to choose their neighbours and it runs against their principle of fraternity. The principle is live and let live.

He went on to say,

“We have also turned down the submission that Section 6A suffers from manifest arbitrariness. Cut-off date (March 25, 1971) prescribed also does not suffer from manifest arbitrariness. There are legible delineated conditions for migrants who came before 1966 and after 1966 and before 1971.”

Justice Kant said that none of the immigrants have found the term “ordinarily resident in Assam” used in Section 6A as being vague or arbitrary. Further,

“On Article 29, we have held that petitioners have failed to show that there is a grave impact on Assamese culture, language…petitioners have not been able to show constitutionally valid impact on their culture due to the presence of any other group. We cannot accept that the Assamese right to vote has been impacted at all.

Summing up, he said,

• Immigrants who entered Assam before January 1, 1966 are deemed to be Indian citizens.
• Immigrants who entered Assam between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971 can seek citizenship, subject to eligibility conditions prescribed under Section 6A.
• Immigrants who entered Assam on after March 25, 1971 are not entitled to protection under Section 6A and consequently, they are declared illegal immigrants.

Today’s outcome of the case is poised have a major bearing on the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) list.

During the hearings in the case, the Court had noted that the provision was introduced partly to remedy the atrocities committed on the population of East Bengal in the aftermath of the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war.

Therefore, it cannot be likened to an amnesty scheme for illegal immigrants in general, the Bench had orally observed.

The CJI had observed that the validity of the Section cannot be determined by political developments that arose after its enactment.

The Union Home Ministry had informed the Court that it would not be able to provide accurate data on the extent of illegal migration of foreigners into India since such migrations happen in a secretive manner.

It had stated on affidavit that 14,346 foreign nationals were deported from the country between 2017 and 2022, and 17,861 migrants who had entered Assam between January 1966 and March 1971 were given Indian citizenship.