Finding laxity on part of the Centre and States to check the influx of illegal Bangladeshi migrants, the Supreme Court on Wednesday set a three-month deadline for the Centre to carry out the fencing of the Indo-Bangladesh border and step up vigilance by way of patrolling and floodlights to curb infiltration across the porous eastern border.
The Bench also stirred a major debate by asking a Constitution Bench to consider whether granting of citizenship to Bangladeshi migrants under the Assam Accord of August 1985 was constitutionally valid since it discriminated citizenship for Assam from rest of the States and diluted the political rights and personal liberty of citizens living in the State.
Hinting at a discrimination meted to the eastern States, the Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Rohington Nariman said, "We are at a loss to understand why 67 years after independence the eastern border is left porous… We have been reliably informed that the entire western border with Pakistan, being 3,300 kms long, is not only properly fenced but manned as well and is not porous at any point." Under the present laws, Bangladeshi migrants who entered the State before January 1, 1966 are entitled to Indian citizenship, while those who reached after this date till March 24, 1971 were to be considered for citizenship by Foreigners Tribunal.
The two-judge Bench carefully considered the pleas of social organisations and NGOs in Assam and concluded that Section 6A of Citizenship Act, which prescribed this distinct category of citizens, had to be studied by a five-judge Bench whether it fell foul of Articles 14, 21, 325, 326 and 355 of the Constitution.Even though the matter stood referred to the larger Bench, Justice Nariman, writing the judgment for the Bench, passed interim directions directing both Centre and Government of Assam to streamline the deportation procedure and constitute Foreigners tribunals with adequate staff within two months to speed up the process of detecting illegal migrants.
Finding the crackdown on illegal migrants to be lacking on several fronts, the Bench said, "The number of tribunals set up is abysmally low…Whereas almost 1.50 lakh persons were deported between 1961 to 1965 under the Immigrants (Expulsion of Assam) Act of 1950, the number of deportations from 1985 till date is a mere 2,000."The entire Indo-Bangla border covers a stretch of 4000 kilometre and the border area in Assam stretches 267 kilometres of which 44 km is riverine. The Court saw a document that showed large portions of international border yet to be fenced with double coil wire fencing, "making border an easy place to cross." The matter will be heard next in March 2015.