Syllabus: GS2/ Polity and Governance
Context
- In a 4:1 majority verdict, the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
Background
- Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, confers citizenship to immigrants who entered Assam after January 1, 1966 but before March 24, 1971.
- The provision was inserted into the Act in furtherance of a Memorandum of Settlement called the “Assam Accord”.
- Under Section 6A, foreigners who had entered Assam before January 1, 1966, and been “ordinarily resident” in the State, would have all the rights and obligations of Indian citizens.
Concerns raised on the provision
- The cut-off date provides a different standard for citizenship for immigrants entering Assam than the rest of India (which is July 1948) and violates the right to equality (Article 14) of the Constitution.
- Also the provision violates the rights of indigenous people from Assam under Article 29 by changing the demographics in the state.
| What is the Assam Accord? – The Assam Accord was signed in 1985 amongst Union of India, Govt. of Assam, All Assam Student of Union, All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad. – To implement the various Clauses of Assam Accord a new Department has been established in the name of “Implementation of Assam Accord Department” during the year 1986. – The Accord set March 24, 1971, as a cut-off. Anyone who had come to Assam before midnight on that date would be an Indian citizen, while those who had come after would be dealt with as foreigners. – The same cut-off was used in updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC). |
Supreme Court ruling
- The Court opined that the mere presence of diverse ethnic groups within a state does not, in itself, constitute a violation of Article 29(1) of the Constitution (protection of interests of minorities).
- Section 6A is a statutory intervention that balances the humanitarian needs of migrants of Indian origin and the impact of such migration on economic and cultural needs of Indian states
Concluding remark
- The judgment underlined parliamentary supremacy over citizenship matters under Article 11 of the Constitution.
- It also reinforced the Union government’s defense of amendments under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019, which is presently pending challenge in the Supreme court.
| Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 – It amended the Citizenship Amendment Act, 1955, making two key changes to facilitate citizenship to undocumented migrants belonging to six non-Muslim communities — Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who entered India on or before December 31, 2014. – It reduced the period to qualify for citizenship from the existing requirement of continuous stay of 11 years to continuous stay of five years. – However, Pakistani Hindus were anyway eligible for citizenship under Section 5 and Section 6 (1) of the Citizenship Act, 1955. The CAA only helped fast track the application process. – The Rules grant the final authority to accord citizenship to an empowered committee headed by the Director, Census Operations, while the scrutiny of applications filed online on the portal was done by a district level committee (DLC) headed by Department of Post officials. 1. On successful verification of documents, the DLCs administered the oath of allegiance to the applicants. |
Source: IE
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