Assam, Tripura litigants hail SC for segregating anti-CAA cases

GUWAHATI: Anti-CAA petitioners in Assam and Tripura on Wednesday gave a thumbs up to the Supreme Court’s decision to treat their reservations about the new law as distinct from that of the rest of the country and, therefore, hear those cases separately and on priority.
“We have been asking for separate hearings for Assam and the northeast as our issues are entirely different,” Lurinjyoti Gogoi, the general secretary of the All Assam Students Union (Aasu), said.“We have been the worst victims of illegal migration from Bangladesh and cannot afford to take in a single extra illegal migrant — be it a Hindu or Muslim. We believe the Supreme Court will give us justice.” In its petition, Aasu has questioned the logic of considering illegal migrants eligible for citizenship even if they entered the state after the Assam Accord cut-off of March 25, 1971.
Congress’s Pradyot Deb Barman, a scion of the Tripura royal family and one of the petitioners against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, said he felt reassured by the apex court taking cognisance of the fact that the issues raised by anti-CAA campaigners in his state and neighbouring Assam were not the same as those echoing elsewhere.