Supreme Court Upholds Validity Of S.6A Of Citizenship Act Recognizing Assam Accord By 4:1 Majority

The Supreme Court today (October 17) upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act 1955, which recognized the Assam Accord, by 4:1 majority.The 5-Judge Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices Surya Kant, MM Sundresh, JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra delivered the judgment.Justice Pardiwala gave a dissenting judgment to hold Section 6A as unconstitutional.CJI DY Chandrachud in his judgment said that the Assam Accord was a political solution to the problem of illegal migration and Section 6A was the legislative solution. The majority held that the Parliament had the legislative competence to enact the provision. The majority held that Section 6A was enacted to balance the humanitarian concerns with the need to protect the local population.The majority also held that the singling out of Assam from other states that shared a larger border with the Bangladesh was rational as the percentage of immigrants among the local…