Guwahati, Sept. 12 -- The Assam Land Revenue Regulation Amendment, 2026, has effectively placed people of Bangladeshi and East Bengal origin in the same legal category as indigenous Assamese, undermining the law's own stated goal of protecting Satra land from encroachment, senior Supreme Court advocate Upamanyu Hazarika alleged on Saturday.

Speaking at a press conference in Guwahati, Hazarika said the amendment's definition of "original inhabitant" was broad enough to cover people of East Bengal origin who have lived in Assam for three continuous generations prior to 2006 - a threshold he argued could defeat the amendment's core purpose of protecting historically and culturally significant sites, including Satras, and restricting settlem...