Undocumented migrants being ‘pushed back’ under legal framework: Assam CM Himanta Sarma

The persons declared foreigners were being “pushed back” to Bangladesh under a legal framework, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed on Saturday.

The Supreme Court, while hearing the challenges to Section 6A of the 1955 Citizenship Act, had said that “there is no legal requirement for the Assam government to always approach the judiciary in order to identify foreigners”, Sarma told reporters.

“There exists an old law called the ‘Immigrants Expulsion Order’,” Sarma said. “The Supreme Court has stated that this law is still in force. According to this law, the DC [district collector] has the authority to issue an order and permit immediate pushback.”

The chief minister added: “For whatever reason, our lawyers hadn’t informed us about this, and we weren’t aware of it either. In the past few days, the entire matter has come to light. That’s why we will now discuss it seriously, and the pushback process will continue.”

In October, the Supreme Court had upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the 1955 Citizenship Act.

Section 6A was introduced as a special provision under the Act when the Assam Accord was signed between the Union government and leaders of the Assam Movement in 1985. It allows foreigners who came to Assam between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971, to...

Read more