Court scraps IMDT Act

In a major blow to the Congress government in Assam ahead of Assembly elections next year, the Supreme Court today declared as unconstitutional the Illegal Migrants Act and directed the government to wind up all tribunals set up under the Act.

Now the complaints would be taken up by ordinary tribunals set up under the Foreigners Act, the court said.

The Migrants Act was passed in 1983 to tackle the menace of illegal migration from Bangladesh. Assam was one of the states acutely affected by it.

Allowing a writ petition filed by Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) MP Sarbananda Sonowal, a three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice RC Lahoti, Justice GP Mathur, Justice PK Balasubramnyan, in an unanimous decision, declared the 1983 Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act and rules framed in 1984 "ultra vires" of the Constitution.

While Sonowal had contended that the IMDT Act was only encouraging the vote-bank politics without addressing the problem of illegal migrants, the Assam government had supported the law saying it was equitious.

The court directed that all the tribunals constituted under the IMDT Act adjudicating the cases for identification of illegal migrants from Bangladesh would "cease to function" with immediate effect as the parent Act had been declared unconstitutional.

The cases pending before the tribunals under the IMDT Act would stand transferred to tribunals under the Foreigners Act, the court said.

Under the IMDT Act, a central law implemented only in Assam but opposed by the previous AGP government headed by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta as well as the National democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre, the onus of proving the citizenship of a illegal migrant was on the complainant.

Taking note of the serious problems faced by the north-eastern state from rampant illegal migration, the court directed the Assam government to constitute sufficient number of tribunals under the Foreigners Act to deal with the situation.