In a significant development, the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday dismissed applications filed by the Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha seeking judgement to fix cut-off date for awarding citizenship to Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjiv Khanna has said in its ruling that “it is not possible to direct early hearing at this stage”.
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“The applications are accordingly dismissed,” ruled the court.
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The Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha had filed an interim appeal (IA) in the apex court to fix 1951 as the cut-off year in place of 1971. The Sangha had also appealed to the court to announce its judgment over the base year before the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is published.
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“The Sangha has pleaded to the Supreme Court to set up the five-member constitutional bench to hear the matter… the Hon’ble SC today ruled out the interim appeal and said that it is not possible for early hearing and dismissed the interim appeal,” said Abdul Kasim Talukdar, advocate, Assam Jamiat.
Earlier, a two-member bench of the apex court had referred the matter to the five-member constitutional bench.