Supreme Court verdict on Assam Accord not historic, I've mixed reaction: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday expressed a "mixed reaction of happiness and sorrow" regarding the Supreme Court judgment on the cut-off date of the Assam Accord.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an official function on Sunday, Sarma emphasised that the Assamese people will have to move forward through "struggles."

"I don't know if this judgment is historic or not. The government enacted the Assam Accord, so its stand in the court was that the cut-off date should be 1971. However, many people in Assam wished the cut-off date to be 1951," he said when asked for his comments on the judgment.

In a majority verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act which grants Indian citizenship to immigrants who came to Assam between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971.

A five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, said the Assam Accord was a political solution to the problem of illegal migration.

"I feel that this verdict establishes 1971 as the cut-off date, and my reaction is mixed. There is both happiness and sorrow in it. Therefore, I don't want to label it a historic judgment; it is simply a blend of both emotions.

"The Assamese community has to move forward with struggles like this," Sarma said without elaborating further in his first reaction after the judgment was delivered by the apex court.

The Assam Accord was signed in 1985 after a six-year-long violent anti-foreigner movement. The pact stated, among other clauses, that names of all foreigners coming to Assam on or after March 25, 1971, would be detected and deleted from electoral rolls with steps taken to deport them.

The majority verdict of the Constitutional Bench held that the cut-off date of March 25, 1971, for entry into Assam and granting citizenship is correct. Section 6A was inserted into the Citizenship Act in 1985 as a special provision to deal with the citizenship of people covered under the Assam Accord.