SC to set up fresh constitution bench to examine aspects of citizenship of immigrants in Assam

The Supreme Court has said that it will set up a fresh Constitution Bench to examine the validity of various aspects of a provision of the Citizenship Act 1955, including the cut-off date for awarding citizenship to Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam. The matter came up before a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar, and DY Chandrachud yesterday. 

A five-judge bench of the apex court in April last



year had said it would deal with 13 questions related to the constitutional validity of section 6A of the Act, which was referred to it for consideration by a two-judge bench in December 2014. The Section 6A of the Act relates to special provisions for citizenship of people covered by the Assam Accord, which was a memorandum of settlement signed between representatives of the Centre and the leaders of Assam movement in August 1985.