Supreme Court asks Centre to provide data on grant of Indian citizenship to Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, December 7

The Supreme Court Thursday directed the Centre to furnish data on the number of Bangladeshi immigrants granted Indian citizenship in Assam between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971.

A five-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud asked the state government to provide the data to the Centre for filing an affidavit before it by December 11.

During the third day of hearing on petitions challenging the validity of section 6A of the Citizenship Act, the Bench — which also included Justice Surya Kant, MM Sundresh, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra —sought to know the steps taken to deal with illegal immigration into India, particularly the Northeast.

“How many persons have been detected to be foreigners under the Foreigners Tribunals Order 1964 with reference to the above period?” the Bench asked, posting the matter for further hearing on Tuesday.

With respect to persons entering India after 25 March 1971, it sought to know the total number of foreigners tribunals set by the Centre, total number of cases disposed of, the number of cases pending, average time taken in disposing of cases and the number of cases pending before the Gauhati High Court.

The Bench also asked the Centre to explain why it singled out Assam and excluded West Bengal from grant of citizenship under section 6A of the Citizenship Act when the latter shares a much larger border with Bangladesh.

“Why did you single out Assam when West Bengal shares a much larger border with Bangladesh? We want to know why West Bengal was excluded from the grant of citizenship…The argument cannot be that there was agitation in Assam…why was West Bengal left alone…what is the position in West Bengal now?” the Bench asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

Section 6A was added to the Citizenship Act as a special provision to deal with the citizenship of persons covered by the Assam Accord. According to this provision, those who came to Assam on or after January 1, 1966, but before March 25, 1971, from specified territories, including Bangladesh, in accordance with the Citizenship Act amended in 1985, and since then are residents of Assam, must register themselves under Section 18 for citizenship.

It fixes March 25, 1971, as the cut-off date for granting citizenship to Bangladeshi migrants in Assam.

Noting that there were people who benefited from the grant of citizenship under Section 6A, the CJI asked, “What happens to those who weren’t granted the benefit of citizenship but are illegal immigrants? Nothing was done about them at all.”

“Everyone who came between 1966 and 1971 did not get citizenship because for citizenship they needed to be detected. So within that larger circle, there is a smaller circle of people who came to India but never got citizenship. What happened to those people?” the CJI asked.