SC likely to issue directions today on pleas challenging validity of Section 6A

Guwahati: The Constitution bench of the Supreme Court is on Tuesday likely to issue directions on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, which gives separate cut-off dates for granting Indian nationality to illegal migrants in Assam that are different from the rest of the country.
The five-member Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, had in its last hearing on December 13, 2022 asked the counsel of the contesting parties to segregate the pending cases into distinct categories “for directions” on January 10.
The matter relating to citizenship in Assam was first referred to the five-judge Constitution bench on December 17, 2014. The apex court constituted the bench to hear the case on April 19, 2017.
The National Register for Citizens (NRC), a list of Indian citizens containing all the necessary information for their identification, was first formulated following the 1951 national census.
The Assam NRC is meant to identify illegal immigrants in the state who migrated from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971.