Supreme Court upholds Section 6A of Citizenship Act; Assam's cut-off date debate continues

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Guwahati: The dilemma of cut of date continued to linger in Assam for several decades, while the Supreme court on Thursday upheld validity of Section 6A of Citizenship Act which conferred citizenship benefits to persons from Bangladesh who settled in Assam and had entered India between January 1966 and March 25, 1971, there are documents and recommendations which stipulates 1951 as the cut of date for identification of foreigners.

The All Assam Students Union (AASU), which spearheaded a six-year-long agitation against illegal immigrants in Assam in 1979-85, welcomed the Supreme Court judgment upholding the validity of Section 6A of Citizenship Act.

AASU's chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharjya said with its order on Section 6A of Citizenship Act 1955, the Supreme Court has given its stamp of approval to the Assam Accord under which all those who had entered Assam illegally must be detected and deported from the country. «We wholeheartedly welcome the Supreme Court verdict. It is a historic verdict. It has established that the Assam agitation was undertaken with genuine reasons and all provisions of the Assam Accord are now legally validated by the apex court.”

Matiur Rahman, a former AASU leader who filed the original petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Sanmilita Mahasabha, an Assam-based organisation challenging the inclusion of Section 6A in the Citizenship Act, said he was not expecting such a verdict. They wanted 1951, and not 1971 which is the year fixed in the Assam Accord, as the cut-off year for