Section 6A of the Citizenship Act

In news–The Supreme Court Constitution Bench while hearing petitions challenging Section 6A of the Citizenship Act said that it will first decide whether the provision is constitutionally valid before proceeding to other issues raised in the pleas.

What is Section 6A of the Citizenship Act?

Section 6A deals with “special provisions as to the citizenship of persons covered by the Assam Accord”.
It says that all those who came to Assam on or after January 1, 1966, but before March 25, 1971, from the specified territory (it includes all territories of Bangladesh at the time of commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1985), and since then are residents of Assam, must register themselves under Section 18 for citizenship.
The provision was introduced in 1985 following the signing of the Assam accord between the Government of India and agitating groups in the state.
Assam is the only state in India to have an exclusive cut-off date for citizenship. For the rest of the country, the cut-off date is July 19, 1949.
Though Section 6A of the Act differentiates between those who came till January 1, 1966 and those till March 24, 1971, the updated NRC does not. The NRC authorities accepted any one of the listed documents under list A and from list B till March 24, 1971.
The NRC was updated as per the Rule 4A of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
Section 3 of the Act principally states that those who were born on or after January 26, 1950 in India but before July 1, 1987 would be an Indian citizen.

About the National Register of Citizens (NRC)–

NRC is the register containing names of Indian citizens .
The only time that a National Register of Citizens (NRC) was prepared was in 1951 when after conduct of the Census of 1951, the NRC was prepared by recording particulars of all the persons enumerated during that Census.
It is mandated by the 2003 amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955. Its purpose is to document all the legal citizens of India so that the illegal immigrants can be identified and deported.
It has been implemented for the state of Assam starting in 2013–2014.
The Government of India announced plans to implement it for the rest of the country in 2021, but it has not yet been implemented.