SC to fix schedule to hear challenge to Sec 6A of Citizenship Act, SC/ST quota in Par, assemblies on Nov 1

New Delhi, Sep 7: The Supreme Court will fix on November 1 the schedule for hearing the challenge to the constitutional validity of a provision of the Citizenship Act inserted in 1985 in furtherance of the Assam Accord and the extension of reservation to SC/ST in Lok Sabha and state assemblies beyond the original 10 year period.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud said it will fix the schedule for hearing of the two important matters and asked the counsel appearing in the matters to file their written compilations in the case.

The bench, also comprising Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha was told by senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing in the Assam Accord matter, that one of the 10 questions of law referred to the five-judge bench was whether delay in hearing the case will affect the vested interest. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, submitted that in order to decide the effect of delay, the court would have to go into the larger issue of citizenship indicated in the reference order.

Justice Chandrachud said the bench will go into all the issues after having gone through the entire documents, including the written compilations submitted by the parties. Under the Assam accord signed by the All Assam Students Union, Assam government and the Government of India on August 15, 1985 to detect and deport the foreigners, Section 6A was inserted to the Citizenship Act to grant citizenship to people who have migrated to Assam.

A Guwahati based NGO challenged section 6A in 2012, terming it arbitrary, discriminatory and unconstitutional claiming it provides different dates for regularising illegal migrants in Assam. A two-judge bench had referred the matter to the Constitution bench in 2014.

Similarly, the other important matter relates to a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of extending reservation to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in Lok Sabha and the state assemblies beyond the original 10 year period contemplated in the Constitution.

Article 330 of the Constitution provides for reservation of seats for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the house of people. It has been contended that reservation and nomination both were initially contemplated for 10 years.

However, the provision was extended every 10 years and the last extension was granted by way of the 104th Constitution Amendment Act, 2020 and will continue till 2030. The top court had referred the matter to five-judge bench on September 2, 2003 on a batch of pleas challenging the validity of the 79th Constitution amendment Act of 1999 providing reservation to SC/ST in Parliament and state Assemblies.