A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of the petitioners, that the petitions needed to be se♏gregated and the issues needed to be formulated for adjudication.
The bench, also comprising justices M R Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli, and P S Narasimha, agreed to the submissions that the petitions🐼 be kept for directions on January 10 n🎶ext year for issuing the directions with regard to laying down parameters for the hearing.
“We are going to resolve how the matters have to be segregat🥀e🥀d. We will sit together and resolve this. Just put it on after vacation,” Sibal said.
“The counsel would segregate the cases which fall for decisi🥂on before this court into distinct categories and the order in which the arguments are to be made,” the bench said, adding “We will keep it for directions.”
The bench directed the apex court registry to provide scanned soft copies of the comp🔜lete set of pleading filed on the issue.
Section 6A in ꦕthe Citizenship Act was inserted as special provisions to deal with the citiz🍰enship of persons covered by the Assam Accord.
The provision p🗹rovides that those who have come to Assam on or after January 1, 1966, but before March 25, 1971, from specified territories, including Bangladesh in 1985, and since then are residents of Assam, must register themselves under section 18 for citizenship.
As a result, the provision fixes March 25, 1971, as the cut-off date for granting citizenship to Ban💮gladeshi migrants in Assam.
As many as 17 petitions, inclu🍌ding the one filed by🤡 Assam Public Works in 2009, are pending on the issue in the apex court.
Earlier, the constitution bench directed the parties to file joint compilations consisting of “written subm𝓡issions; precedents; and any other documentary material on which reliance will be placed at the time of hearing”.
“A common index shall🅰 be prepared in three separate volumes of the above compilations,” it had said.
It had appointed lawyers Fuzail Ahmad Ayy﷽ubi, assisting Sibal, and Dik﷽sha Rai, the counsel appearing with Attorney General R Venkataramani as the nodal counsel to ensure that soft copies of the compilations are prepared and circulated to the Bench and to the counsel appearing on behalf of the contesting parties.
