A day after the Centre notified implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rules, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) today approached the Supreme Court to challenge the move.
The party, primarily based in Kerala, has sought a pause on the implementation of the law, calling it “unconstitutional” and “discriminatory” against the Muslim community.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed in 2019, enables non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan fleeing religious persecution to seek Indian citizenship. Persons from Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities from these countries, who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, can seek citizenship under CAA.The IUML was among the first to challenge the law in 2019. Its petition contends that not including Muslims in the list of those eligible for citizenship violates the right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution.
Earlier, IUML had sought a pause on the implementation of the Act, but the Centre had then told the court that the law will not come into force because the rules had not been notified yet.
The petition has said that the implementation of CAA rules must be paused till the Supreme Court rules on 250 pending petitions against the Constitutional validity of the Act. The preamble of the Constitution envisages that India is a secular country and, therefore, any law passed has to be religion-neutral, the petition says.
The Centre’s announcement last evening prompted celebrations, as well as protests, in several parts of the country. Members of the Matua community in Bengal and Sindhi refugees living in Bhopal held celebrations after the announcement. In some other areas, however, the public mood was different. Protests erupted in Assam, which has been protesting against the new citizenship rules on the ground that it will lead to large-scale migration into the border state. In other areas of the country, protesters alleged that the law is discriminatory against the Muslim community.