MANU/SC/0780/2019

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Civil Appeal No. 5012 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 23127 of 2018), Civil Appeal No. 5025 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 13011 of 2019, Arising out of Dairy No. 25095 of 2017), Civil Appeal No. 5026 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 13012 of 2019, Arising out of Dairy No. 25101 of 2017), Civil Appeal No. 5013 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 25052 of 2017), Civil Appeal No. 5014 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 2512 of 2018), Civil Appeal No. 5015 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 5342 of 2018), Civil Appeal No. 5024 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 13010 of 2019, Arising out of Dairy No. 26459 of 2018), Civil Appeal No. 5016 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 26935 of 2018), Civil Appeal No. 5017 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 3774 of 2019), Civil Appeal No. 5021 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 13007 of 2019, Arising out of Dairy No. 1191 of 2019), Civil Appeal No. 5023 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 13009 of 2019, Arising out of Dairy No. 4112 of 2019), Civil Appeal No. 5018 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 4704 of 2019), Civil Appeal No. 5022 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 13008 of 2019, Arising out of Dairy No. 5071 of 2019), Criminal Appeal No. 910 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (Crl.) No. 2058 of 2019) and Civil Appeal No. 5019 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 5367 of 2019) and Civil Appeal No. 5020 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 6570 of 2019)

Decided On: 17.05.2019

Appellants: Abdul Kuddus Vs. Respondent: Union of India (UOI) and Ors.

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
Ranjan Gogoi, C.J.I., Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna

ORDER

Sanjiv Khanna, J.

1. Delay condoned. Leave granted.

2. This order decides perceived conflict between sub-paragraph (2) to paragraph 3 and paragraph 8 of the Schedule to the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 (the 2003 Rules for short). We shall also examine the alternative argument and suggestion of the Appellants that this Court should by way of a judicial pronouncement and in exercise of power Under Article 142 of the Constitution of India provide and create an appellate forum for deciding disputes regarding the citizenship status of persons residing in the State of Assam.

3. Articles 5 to 9 of the Constitution delineate and determine persons who are citizens of India on commencement of the Constitution. Article 10 provides for their continuance as citizens subject to the provisions of any law that may be made by the Parliament. Article 11 of the Constitution, expressly confers power on the Parliament to make laws with respect to acquisition and termination of citizenship and all matters relating to citizenship. To achieve and with this objective, the Parliament has enacted the Citizenship Act, 1955 (the Citizenship Act for short) which provides for acquisition of citizenship after the commencement of the Constitution by birth, registration, naturalisation and incorporation of territory.

4. Section 14A of the C........