Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has written to the state’s Chief Secretary demanding a report for challenging the Citizenship Amendment Act in the Supreme Court, sources close to the government said.
“The Governor’s office has sought a report from the Chief Secretary for not informing him about the state’s move to challenge the constitutional validity of CAA in the Supreme Court”, sources told India Legal today.
The standoff between the Governor and the state government has intensified in the last couple of weeks.
On Tuesday, Kerala government had moved SC against the CAA, thus becoming the first state government to move to SC against the controversial law.
The original suit has been filed by the CPI(M) led government under the Article 131 of the Constitution of India. Article 131 of Constitution gives Supreme Court rights to intervene in case of any dispute between Government of India and any State. This article deals with matter of legal dispute only. The suit also challenges the Passport (Entry to India) Amendment Rules 2015, and Foreigners (Amendment) Order 2015.
Kerala Government has claimed that the Citizenship Amendment Act is in gross violation of fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 21 and 25 of the Constitution.
The Kerala government has also claimed that Citizenship Amendment Act is threat to the secular fabric of our country and is in gross violation of the principles of secularism, enshrined in the Constitution of India.
Supreme Court is likely to hear this petition, along with 60 others on the same issue, this Wednesday.
Kerala Legislative Assembly had passed a resolution on December 31, 2019, urging the centre to repeal the controversial act. The Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said that there would be no detention centres in Kerala. Kerala government has also stayed the process of National Population Register in the state.
The Governor on January 2, had said that the resolution passed by the Kerala assembly against the newly amended Citizenship Act, has no ‘constitutional validity‘.