Supreme Court Issues Notice On Plea Seeking To Stop Harassment Of Minorities In Assam Under The Pretext Of Detecting Illegal Migrants

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice in a writ petition seeking to stop harassment of people belonging to religious and linguistic minority communities of Assam in the name of detection and deportation of alleged foreigners.

The bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant directed for listing the matter after disposal of the reference made in Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha and Others v. Union of India and Others 2015 3 SCC 1 which deals with the constitutionality of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which provides the statutory basis for the Assam-NRC

The bench in their order said, "In view of the reference which has been made in 2015 3 SCC 1 Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha and Others v. Union of India and Others, list after the reference is disposed of. WP be listed after disposal of the plea."

The petition was filed by an organization named "Asom Sankhyalaghu Sangram Parishad".

When the matter was called for hearing, Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde for the petitioner submitted that the State Coordinator of Assam NRC has filed an application seeking re-verification of the National Register of Citizens(NRC). The petition has also sought for prohibiting the authority to delete or exclude any person from the final list of the NRC of Assam dated August 31, 2019.

"We can say to list this matter after the Constitution bench. We'll issue a notice and we'll list the matter after the Constitution Bench", the bench said.

The petitioners have also sought to strictly prohibit the state from doubting one's citizenship without discharging their initial burden in collecting materials of doubt.

An amendment to the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964 was also prayed for to include a provision related to methodology/ mechanism for identification and determination of status of a suspected person.

In the petition, petitioners had also prayed for directing the Registrar General of India to finalize the draft list of NRC published on 31/8/2019, issue NRC identity card to all persons included in the final list and provide facilities to prefer appeal to the left out persons from the NRC. The petition has been filed by Advocate Adeel Ahmed.

It may be noted that, the bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and RF Nariman on December 17, 2014, after hearing the petitions preferred by Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha, that had challenged the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, had referred the matter to larger Constitutional Bench.  On 19th April, 2017 a 5-Judge Bench, comprising of Justices Madan B.Lokur, R.K.Agrawal, Prafulla Chandra Pant, D.Y.Chandrachud, and Ashok Bhushan was constituted.

Case Title: Asom Sankhyalaghu Sangram Parishad v UOI & Ors| WP(C) 201/2022

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