New Delhi, July 13: The Manmohan Singh government today told the Supreme Court that it would like to persist with the contentious Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, marking a major policy shift on the subject after the change of guard in Delhi. The erstwhile BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government wanted the legislation to be scrapped, a stand welcomed by the Asom Gana Parishad and the All-Assam Students? Union (AASU), which spearheaded the anti-foreigner agitation in the state.
After the Centre?s submission, the three-judge bench of Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti, Justice G.P. Mathur and Justice C.K. Thakkar asked it to file an affidavit within four weeks. The apex court has been hearing a batch of petitions for and against repealing the IMDT Act for about four years now.
The legislation has been the subject of debate primarily because it is, in practice, applicable only in Assam. The AASU sees it as an impediment to detection and deportation of illegal migrants from Bangladesh, though the legislation is supposed to be a tool to achieve the opposite aim.
The BJP argued before the Supreme Court that it would be difficult to push back illegal Bangladeshi migrants if the Act were to be retained. It even drafted a repeal document and forwarded it to the parliamentary standing committee.
The Tarun Gogoi government in Assam complicated the situation by submitting an affidavit in the apex court, altering the decision taken by the erstwhile Prafulla Kumar Mahanta cabinet to push for repeal of the IMDT Act.
Another petition, submitted by the All India Lawyers? Forum for Civil Liberties, contended that illegal Bangladeshi migrants were multiplying not only in Assam and West Bengal, but also in states such as Bihar, Delhi and Maharashtra. It also accused the state governments of inaction.
Former AGP legislator Sarabananda Sonowal, now a Lok Sabha member, challenged the constitutional validity of the act on the ground that it was applicable only in Assam.
A couple of organisations representing the minorities of Assam subsequently filed interlocutory applications demanding retention of the act.
In the nine-page document sent to the parliamentary standing committee, the erstwhile Atal Bihari Vajpayee government said 3,68,609 citizenship inquiries had been initiated under the act and only 1,501 migrants deported.
It described the solicitor-general?s views on the legislation as ?highly detrimental to the concept of unity and integrity of India? and said ?different laws cannot be applied to detect same classes of persons?.
The Congress-led UPA government has to withdraw the document to facilitate continuance of the act.