Author: PTI
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: May 6, 2003
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/06migrant.htm
The Cabinet on Tuesday night decided
to repeal the contentious Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals)
Act, 1983.
The IMDT Act was termed discriminatory
because it was made applicable only in Assam, while the Foreigners Act,
1946, was applicable to the rest of the country, Parliamentary Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj said after a Cabinet meeting in New Delhi.
Repealing the IMDT Act will enable
the government to accelerate the detection and deportation of migrants
who entered Assam on or after March 25, 1971, she said.
An explanation may be added to Section
2 of the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, to the effect that
the proviso shall not be applicable to any person who, on or after March
25, 1971, has migrated to India from any area forming part of Bangladesh,
she said.
The Cabinet approved a draft bill
for repealing the act from a date to be notified and the repealing measure
will be introduced during the current session of Parliament, she added.
She said former Assam chief minister
P K Mohanta had raised the issue of withdrawal of the act. The then governor
of the state, in a special report in 1998, had echoed his thoughts, she
added.
Under the repealing legislation,
all cases that have been referred to or are under consideration of the
IMD Tribunals may be tried afresh under the provisions of the Foreigners
Act, Swaraj said.
Appeals pending before the IMD Appellate
Tribunal against the orders of the IMD Tribunals will continue till these
are disposed off. The high court may be empowered to review the decisions
of the Appellate Tribunal by way of revision.
Swaraj, however, made it clear that
such a central legislation would not be binding on the states.
