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“Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, which was meant to dispel and discourage incoming illegal immigrants, turned out to be a beacon for the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh to come into Assam, by taking advantage of the poor mechanism which is prone to open abuse.”
Supreme Court affirmed that the cut-off date of 25 March 1971 is rational as on the said date, Pakistani Army launched Operation Search Light to curb Bengali nationalist movement in East Pakistan. The migrants before the operation were migrants of partition towards which India had a liberal policy. Migrants from Bangladesh after the said date were migrants of war and not partition.
Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, permits foreign migrants of Indian origin who entered Assam between 01-01-1966, and 25-03-1971, to apply for Indian citizenship. This provision was introduced in 1985 as part of the Assam Accord, an agreement between the Government of India and leaders of the Assam movement, which aimed to address the concerns over illegal immigration from Bangladesh