IMDT repeal chances brighten

NEW DELHI, February 27: The Supreme Court's move to examine the validity of the IMDT Act is likely to finally sound its death knell as the Apex Court may order striking down of the controversial Act. The observation by the Division Bench led by the Chief Justice of India, A S Anand that unhindered illegal infiltration from across the border may not only change the demographic pattern of Assam but poses a threat to the internal security and sovereignty of the country, has led to renewed hope that the Act may finally be on its way out. However, the Apex Court wants to hear out all parties connected with the case and asked each of them to file counter affidavits and written submission within eight weeks before the Court fixes a final date of hearing to dispose off the Writ Petition filed by Sarbananda Sonowal, who has challenged the validity of the Act and the All India Lawyers Forum for Civil Liberties (AILFCL), which had filed a PIL seeking direction from the court to check illegal infiltration from across the country. According to legal experts here though it is rare, the Supreme Court on several occasion in the past questioning the legal validity has struck down Acts. "The fact that both the Central Government and Assam Government have conceded that the Act is discriminatory piece of legislation and a threat to the national security of the country goes in our favour and it should be reason enough for the Supreme Court to strike down the Act as unconstitutional, opined Assam Government's counsel, Vijay Hansaria. The counsel for Government of India, Attorney General Harsh Salve, in fact admitted as much when he repeated the Centre's position by asserting that it has approached the Apex Court, as the Government was not in a position to have it repealed in absence of political consensus. The Court could examine the Act and if found discriminatory, squash it, he suggested. Legal luminaries here said that the case could be nearing an end as the Supreme Court has called for another sitting to discuss the matter before setting a final date for disposing the petition. What has elated the petitioners the most is the observation from the bench also comprising Justice R C Lahoti and Justice Brijesh Kumar about the problem of infiltration. The Bench during the course of hearing observed that the Government needed to take exemplary steps like deportation to stop the menace of illegal infiltation of foreigners in the country. Slamming the Government for being indifferent to the infiltration problem, the Bench held that if allowed to go unchecked the problem would go on aggravating. The remark prompted the Attorney General to assert that main stumbling block was the IMDT Act. Meanwhile, the more of the Assam Congress party to get involved albeit belatedly with the case, obviously with an eye on the forthcoming polls in the State, may be a case of coming too late. The Assam Congress is the fourth party to file interventions petition in the case. Earlier, the United Minority Front (UMF), Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind, R K Jain a Congress sympathizer had filed petitions seeking to get themselves involved with the case. The general secretary of the APCC , Sarat Borkotoki, who filed the petition on behalf of his party, roped in their prominent Rajya Sabha M P Kapil Sibal. The main thrust of the Congress party's contention was that the government should take the case to the political forum if it felt the Act was discriminatory and not place it in the legal forum for a decision. It has been found a total number of 3,10,759 inquiries were initiated out of which only 10,015 persons were declared as illegal migrants. Had there been no IMDT Act, all these persons had to be deported without affording an opportunity to defend their valuable right to prove their citizenship, it claimed. The Congress party also claimed that the Act served a dual purpose. On the one hand it checks the presence of illegal migrants and on the other, provides an effective machinery for protection of genuine Indian citizens from being harassed at the hands of police and being illegally deported out of the country. Hafiz Rashid Choudhury on behalf of the UMF and Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind among other issues while opposing the IMDT Act expressed the apprehension that scrapping of the Act may lead to communal violence in the State. "We feel that the repeal or further amendment of the Act will lead not only to electoral genocide of the linguistic and religious minorities, but will revive the situation prevalent at the time of Assam agitation. We further believe that if the Act is repealed it will lead to mistrust and misunderstanding between the majority and minority communities resulting into chaos, disorder and communal violence in the State," the UMF contended.