The central committee of the Axom Premi Yuva Chatra Samaj, Axom, (APYCSA) demanded on Wednesday that 1951 should be set as the cut-off year for deportation of foreigners in Assam.
A report appearing in the The Telegraph stated that the APYCSA, formed in Jorhat (Assam) in 2016 to secure full rights of the indigenous people, submitted an intervention application in the case filed by Asom Sanmilita Mahasabha on the same ground in the Supreme Court on July 10 last.
The case, number 562/12, filed by the Mahasabha, will be heard by a five-member constitutional bench from the first week of August, the Samaj said. The report further stated that the APYCSA’s contention is that fixing 1971 as the cut-off date in Assam is “unconstitutional” as 28 other States in the country has 1951 as the cut-off year for deportation of the around 70 lakh foreigners that came to the country from former East Pakistan and Nepal.
The report quoted the APYCSA president, Manuj Gogoi, as saying, “From 1979 to 1985, a huge movement on the issue of 1951 as the cut-off year for deportation of foreigners from the State was spearheaded by the Sadou Asom Gana Sangram Parishad and the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU). But, on the night of August 15, 1985, the leaders of the movement signed an agreement of compromise with the Central Government without consulting the people of the State. It was, in reality, a memorandum of understanding but was turned into the momentous Assam Accord. Through this Accord, clause 6 (A) was inserted into the Citizenship Act, 1955, to make 1971 as the
cut-off year only in the case of Assam, which was unconstitutional.”
“It is curious case where a person entering the neighbouring State of Meghalaya between 1951 and 1971 is declared a foreigner but as soon as he crosses the border into Assam, he becomes an Indian. We cannot accept 1971 as the cut-off year. A case filed in this regard by the Mahasabha has been pending before a five-member constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court for the last three years because of political interference. Chief Justice Dipak Misra has said a Bench headed by senior advocate Kamal Narayan Choudhury will hold serial hearings from the beginning of next month (read August),” Gogoi said.
On the other hand, the Sadou Asom Jatiya Swahid Parial Samannayrakhi Parishad, an organisation representing martyrs and victims of the Assam Agitation, has demanded that all those who entered Assam after March 24, 1971, irrespective of religion or community, be deported.