Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955

Recently, A Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said it will first take up for preliminary determination whether Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 suffers from any “constitutional infirmity”.

About:

• Section 6A was a special provision inserted into the 1955 Act in furtherance of a Memorandum of Settlement called the ‘Assam Accord’ signed on August 15, 1985.
• The accord was a tripartite agreement between the Centre, the Assam government and the All Assam Students Union, and came after years of protest against perceived demographic change and outsiders in the state.

Section 6A

• It created a special provision for Assam by which persons who entered between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971, and who are residing in the state, upon being detected as foreigners, will be allowed to register
• Upon registration, such a person will have the same rights and obligations as a citizen of India, but will not be entitled to be included in any electoral roll for a period of 10 years.
• 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 including the right to vote.

What are the main challenges to Section 6A?

• Encouraging “foreign infiltration”: Petitioners argue that Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, by providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who entered Assam before 1971, actually incentivized further “foreign infiltration” into the state.
  • This is because it gave hope to illegal immigrants that they could eventually obtain citizenship, even if they entered the country illegally.
• Destruction of local cultural identity:
  • Petitioners also claim that the influx of illegal immigrants has led to the destruction of the local Assamese cultural identity.
  • This is due to factors such as demographic changes, competition for resources, and potential assimilation of indigenous communities.

• Unjustified special treatment for Assam: Petitioners argue that there is no justification for singling out Assam and subjecting it to a different citizenship regime compared to other Indian states.
  • They claim that the justification of a violent political agitation leading to a political settlement (Assam Accord) is not sufficient to justify such a significant departure in policy.
• Arbitrary and discriminatory:
  • Section 6A of the Citizenship Act has also been challenged on the grounds of being arbitrary and discriminatory.
  • Critics argue that it violates the fundamental right to equality by providing preferential treatment to a specific group of illegal immigrants based on their date of entry.
• Lack of clarity on the definition of “infiltration”: There is also some lack of clarity on the definition of “infiltration” used in Section 6A.
  • This lack of clarity creates confusion and uncertainty and can lead to potential misuse of the provision.
• Assam Accord-1985:
  • It was signed by the All Assam Students Union, the Assam government, and the Government of India on August 15, 1985, to detect and deport foreigners to the state.
• What is NRC in Assam?
  • The NRC in Assam is basically a list of Indian citizens living in the state. The citizens’ register sets out to identify foreign nationals in the state that borders Bangladesh.
  • The process to update the register began following a Supreme Court order in 2013, with the state’s nearly 33 million people having to prove that they were Indian nationals before March 24, 1971.
  • The updated final NRC was released on August 31, with over 1.9 million applicants failing to make it to the list.