In light of a case with comparable problems pending before the Supreme Court, the Gauhati High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) appeal demanding the strict enforcement of the deportation articles of the Assam Accord, 1985. In order to await the Supreme Court's (SC) ruling, the HC determined that the current PIL should be closed.
The petition (PIL/57/2016) filed by the Assam Andolon Sangrami Mancha, which had expressed concern over the "insignificant number of deportations" despite the legal framework of the Assam Accord with certain clauses to that effect, was dismissed by a bench of Justices Michael Zothankhuma and N. Unni Krishnan Nair.
According to the petitioner, the Assamese people's cultural, social, and linguistic identities have not been safeguarded or promoted by the national and state authorities.
The petitioner further contended that the Assam Accord must be implemented in "right earnest" in order to protect the identity of the indigenous people.
The little number of deportations and the ongoing presence of illegal migrants in the state of Assam were further issues raised in the PIL case.
In particular, the petitioner sought for the execution of the Assam Accord 1985's Clauses 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, and 5.5, which serve as the foundation for the expulsion and detection procedure.
In its ruling, the court noted that a particular prayer made by the petitioner to declare the proposed bill for the regularization of foreign Hindu immigrants to Assam up until 2016 unlawful was "null and void," pointing out that the prayer had become "infructuous" in light of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.
The HC declared that it is "awaiting" the Supreme Court's decision because the parties acknowledged that similar cases are still pending before the highest court.
"We are of the view that the present PIL should be closed awaiting the decision of the Supreme Court, as the Supreme Court has apparently not decided the issues till today, which are also agitated in the present case," the court stated when dismissing the PIL. As a result, we close the PIL while we await the Hon'ble Supreme Court's ruling.
