NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down as unconstitutional the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, which provided for identification and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants.

A three-judge Bench, comprising Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti, Justice G.P. Mathur and Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan, declared as ultra vires the Constitution the controversial 1983 Act and the Rules framed thereunder in 1984.

Allowing a writ petition filed by Asom Gana Parishad MP, Sarbananda Sonowal, challenging the validity of the Act, the Bench directed that all tribunals constituted under the IMDT Act adjudicating the cases for identification of illegal migrants from Bangladesh cease to function with immediate effect.

The cases pending before the tribunals under the IMDT Act would stand transferred to tribunals under the Foreigners Act. Considering the huge pendency of applications, the Judges directed the Assam Government to constitute sufficient number of tribunals under the Foreigners Act to deal with the situation.

The IMDT Act came into existence in 1983 at the height of the anti-foreigners agitation launched by the All-Assam Students' Union for detection of foreigners and deletion of their names from the electoral rolls. The Assam Accord — signed on August 14, 1985 by the AASU, the Centre and the State Government — contained the provision that all foreigners who came to the State after March 25, 1971 would be detected and deported under the Act .

The IMDT Act was implemented only in Assam. The previous AGP Government, headed by Prafulla Mahanta, as well as the National Democratic Alliance Government at the Centre had opposed the law as the onus of proving the citizenship of an illegal migrant rested with the complainant.

The petitioner said the Act was only encouraging vote bank politics without addressing the mammoth problem of illegal migrants. It provided a complicated and cumbersome procedure for detection and deportation of illegal migrants and had failed to meet even the standards prescribed under the Foreigners Act. The continued presence of a large number of foreigners, who had entered into Assam after March 25, 1971 without possession of any valid passport or lawful authority, had changed the character and ethnic composition of the area, he added.

The present Tarun Gogoi Government in Assam supported the IMDT Act on the ground that it was the only way by which illegal immigrants could be identified and deported. It withdrew the affidavit filed earlier supporting repeal of the Act and favoured its continuance in the State alone. The Centre informed the court that it had no intention of extending the applicability of the Act to other north-eastern States.

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