A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court asking for the removal of the observation that all Nepalis settled in Sikkim are of "foreign origin," which has sparked demonstrations in Sikkim.

The statement was made in a judgement written by Justice BV Nagarathna in the case Association of Old Settlers of Sikkim vs. Union of India, which found that Section 10(26AAA) of the Income Tax Act's definition of "Sikkimese," which excludes old Indian settlers who permanently settled in Sikkim before Sikkim's merger with India on April 26, 1975, is unconstitutional. The remark, which was made when explaining Sikkim's history and has no influence on the judgment's final justification, has caused significant demonstrations in Sikkim, a state where there have long been tensions between several ethnic groups.

In this backdrop, two persons belonging to Sikkimese Nepali group have filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking modifications in the judgment. The application was mentioned by Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde before Justice BV Nagarathna on Monday. The judge agreed to list the matter.

The mischaracterization of the statement has greatly hurt the feelings of all demographic groups in Sikkim, who have come out to protest in the streets. The applicants Bharat Basnett and Ram Bahadur Subba also brought up the ongoing demonstrations against this problem in the State.

The petition further argued that although some Sikkimese citizens, specifically those who were born in Nepal or are directly descended from Nepal, may be of foreign ancestry, their numbers make up a very small proportion of the overall population. 
Since neither the original petitioner nor the State Government had taken any action to seek rectification, the applicants, who were not parties to the original case, requested intervention.

The application requests a revision of the ruling in this regard "interest of justice and to heal the wounds of more than half a million citizens of India who feel deeply alienated in account of the (aforesaid) inadvertence...".

Case Title: Association of Old Settlers of Sikkim and Ors vs UOI 
Citation: WP (C) 59/2013