SC Order on D-Voters

The Supreme Court has filly ruled that the D (doubtful) voters could exercise their franchise if they were able to prove their Indian citizenship under Section 6 A of the Citizenship Act. There is no doubt that this order is bound to help the Congress in no small measure because the D-voters have always looked up to the Congress as their saviour in the matter of working for their franchise. Considering that there are 1,36,448 D-voters in Assam and the trial on their citizenship is under way in various foreigners tribuls in the State, the Congress has valid reasons to expect that almost all D-voters will vote for the Congress. Not everyone is entirely convinced that the Supreme Court has really been in a position to go into the merits of the case of D-voters. There is the lurking feeling that the D-voters might have got their franchise more as a result of their having been denied their franchise for too long rather than as a just outcome of what was due to them. We are also being asked to forget that the appointment of tribuls is not a valid means of implementing the Foreigners Act of 1946. In grafting the tribuls of the IM(DT) Act on the Foreigners Act, there has not only been a hybridization of the Foreigners Act but also a perceptible slowing down of the application of India’s immigration law. For some inexplicable reason, no one is questioning what has been done to the Foreigners Act. As for anyone proving his/her Indian citizenship, the Union Home Ministry under P. Chidambaram made it impossible for Indians to prove their tiolity. They are now able to prove only their resident status.