SC expands the scope of Assam immigrants case

The Centre must be very serious about what is happening in states bordering Bangladesh as an unchecked influx of illegal immigrants not only impacts demography but stresses resources, Supreme Court said on Thursday as it dramatically expanded the scope of ongoing hearings over a contentious clause in India's citizenship law.

- Abraham Thomas

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud also sought an estimate of all illegal immigrants to India, including but not limited to Assam, after March 25, 1971, when the war of Bangladesh began. The top court also asked for details of foreigner tribunals and deportations given and steps taken by the government to deal with illegal migration and border fencing, setting a deadline of Monday for all the data to be furnished.

"We cannot allow for an unlimited influx [of illegal immigrants]. The infrastructure, education, public hospitals here are limited... We are of the considered view that it would be necessary for the central government to provide data-based disclosures to the court. We direct that an affidavit be filed to this court on or before Monday," said the bench, also comprising justices Surya Kant, MM Sundresh, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

The apex court was considering a clutch of petitions challenging the validity of section 6A of the Citizenship Act. This provision provided citizenship to illegal immigrants who entered and settled in Assam from erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971 and was inserted into the 1955 Citizenship Act in 1985, as a special provision to deal with the citizenship of people covered under the Assam Accord.

- a tripartite agreement signed by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), the Assam government and the then Rajiv Gandhi-led Union government, to preserve and protect the cultural, linguistic and social identity of Assam. A violent antimigrant movement that had raged for six years in the border province ended with the signing of the pact.