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SC Declines to stay Presidential Order Excluding Assam from 'inner line permit area'
The honourable Supreme Court on 3rd June 2020 has asked the Government at the Centre to respond on the Presidential Order which was signed by the President of India with regard to the amendment of the “Inner Line Permit” system under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulations (BEFR), 1873.
Under this “Inner Line Permit” system there is a kind of safe, insulating system in place that operates in the North-Eastern states of India, whereby the outsiders have to take permission in order to enter in these states and thus protects the natives from the point of view of their jobs, land, ethnicity etc.
The order of the President has been challenged by the All Tai Ahom Students Union and the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishada, who have called the Presidential Order as unconstitutional and they want the system of “Inner Line Permit” to continue in the state of Assam so that the state may continue to be protected from the Citizenship Amendment Act and thus these unions have also been protesting against the CAA.
The Section 2 of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulations (BEFR), 1873, mentions the system of “Inner Line Permit” or ILP, meaning that those from other states require a permit for visiting the states where this system is applied. Currently, it is applicable in Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram. Manipur being the last one, where it was applied on December 11, 2019, after the order of the President.
The main contention of the petitioners was that the major districts of Assam viz. Kamrup, Darrang, Nowgong, Sibsagar, Lakhimpur and Cachar were removed from the application of The Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulations (BEFR), 1873 and that too only a day before the application of Citizenship Amendment Act and also that the Article 372(2) under which the order by the President was passed was obsolete as it is mentioned under Article 372(3) that the President could pass such an order only till 1953.
From the side of the petitioners' senior advocate Vikas Singh was appearing who sought an interim stay on the Presidential order.
The Supreme Court Bench which consisted of Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Hrishikesh Roy, refused to grant the ex-parte stay on the applicability of the impugned Presidential Order. In the hearing which was conducted through video conferencing the Bench has served a notice to the Government at the Centre and the matter is now, scheduled to be heard two weeks later. On the issue pertaining to the interim-stay on the order of the President, the Supreme Court has said that it won’t grant any interim-stay as the concerns of the Centre have yet not been heard by the Court.
