Supreme Court Upholds Section 6A of Citizenship Act 4:1, Validating Assam Accord's 25 March 1971 Cut-Off

Section 6A was inserted by the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 1985 to give effect to the Assam Accord (Chandrachud CJI, paras 4, 69). Migrants who entered Assam before 1 January 1966 are deemed citizens, while those who came after that date but before 25 March 1971 acquire citizenship ten years after detection as foreigners (Chandrachud CJI, paras 4, 114). Later entrants receive no protection (Surya Kant J., para 1). After a 2009 petition on illegal migrants in Assam's electoral rolls, organisations challenged the provision in 2012, and on 17 December 2014 a two-Judge Bench in Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha framed thirteen questions and referred them to a Constitution Bench (Surya Kant J., para 28; Chandrachud CJI, para 1).

Delay did not bar the petitions, which raise substantial questions on a statute's validity (Surya Kant J., paras 75-76). Article 11 lets Parliament legislate on citizenship unrestricted by Part II, so different cut-off dates do not offend Articles 6 and 7 (Surya Kant J., paras 134, 142; Chandrachud CJI, para 125). Confining Section 6A to Assam is reasonable given the unique situation the influx created there (Surya Kant J., paras 204-205). Both yardsticks, migration to Assam and the 1971 cut-off, have a rational nexus with the object (Chandrachud CJI, para 125). The cut-off dates rest on a considered rationale, and the provision is not manifestly arbitrary (Surya Kant J., paras 232, 273). Concerns about Assamese culture stem from non-implementation of the statutory regime, not from Section 6A (Surya Kant J., para 304). Section 6A does not itself create unabated migration amounting to external aggression (Surya Kant J., paras 364, 367). The CJI declined to apply temporal unreasonableness because the classification remains relevant (Chandrachud CJI, para 120). Dissenting, Pardiwala J. held that the lack of any time limit for detection, with its burden on the State, made the provision arbitrary over time (Pardiwala J., paras 139, 208-209).