The matter came up before a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar, and D Y Chandrachud, which said, "We will set up a Constitution bench in the matter."
A five-judge bench of the apex court in April last year had said it would deal with 13 questions related to the constitutional validity of section 6A of the Act, which were referred to it for consideration by a two-judge bench in December 2014.
The bench had said that apart from these 13 questions, it might also deal with related issues raised by the parties, if required.
In December 2014, a two-judge bench of the apex court had framed 13 questions, for deliberation by a larger bench, which included as to whether section 6A violates the Articles of the Constitution by diluting the political rights of citizens of Assam.
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The two-judge bench had formulated questions whether section 6A of the Citizenship Act 1955 violates Article 14 (equality before law) and Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution.
"Whether section 6A violates the basic premise of the Constitution and the Citizenship Act in that it permits citizens who have allegedly not lost their citizenship of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to become deemed citizens of India, thereby conferring dual citizenship to such persons," it had said.
It had earlier passed a slew of directions, including an order to the Centre to complete the fencing work along the India-Bangladesh border within three months to check cross- border influx of illegal Bangladesh nationals into Assam and streamline the process to deport them back.
The apex court had also laid down a time-table for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam so that the entire updated register is published by the end of January, 2016.
In their writ petition, the petitioners had said the sovereignty and integrity of India is itself at stake as a massive influx of illegal immigrants from a neighbouring country has affected the core constitutional value.
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