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Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for the petitioner side, told the bench today that the reference had been narrowed down to only Section 6A and as such the common compilations should be confined only to this one issue
Supreme Court has decided to take up the final hearing in the pleas pertaining to Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC), which is a challenge to the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, from October 17.
"We will start on October 17..so that we have a flavour of the matter when it opens..we can start reading etc..", ordered CJI Chandrachud refusing to accept the request made by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to commence hearing in the case post Diwali.
The bench also comprising Justices Bopanna, Sundresh, Pardiwala and Manoj Misra has issued procedural directions in the matter while deciding that the title of the case shall be IN RE Section 6A of Citizenship Act.
"We will say title of proceedings shall be IN Re Section 6A of the Citizenship Act. The common compilation has to be brought in conformity with the SOP issued by the Supreme Court for constitution bench matters. Soft copies of the common compilation shall be prepared by two weeks on or before October 3 and written submissions shall be filed on or before October 10.", the order adds.
Last week, Union of India had placed a request before the Supreme Court of India for issuing procedural directions in the matter pertaining to Assam's NRC, when it would be taken up today by a Constitution Bench.
A bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud along with Justices AS Bopanna, MM Sundresh, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra will start hearing the Assam NRC case from September 20 along with two other matters.
Supreme Court of India had issued a notification recently stating that it had set up a five-judge Constitution Bench to hear the matter involving the issues of Assam NRC, reservations in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies and immunity for MPs and MLAs from being prosecuted for bribery charges.
The NRC case is on a challenge to the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act which was inserted through an amendment in 1985 in furtherance of the Assam Accord.
Section 6A is a special provision on the citizenship of persons covered by the Assam Accord and provides that the people who entered India between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971, and have been living in Assam, would be allowed to register themselves as citizens of India.
Calling out this provision to be discriminatory, a direction is sought to the concerned authority to update the NRC based on the details incorporated in the NRC prepared in 1951 as opposed to updating the same by taking account of the electoral rolls prior to March 24, 1971.
Case Title: In Re Section 6A of the Citizenship Act
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