In an unprecedented move, the Kerala Government has filed an original suit in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of Citizenship Amendment Act. The original suit has been filed under the Article 131 of the Constitution of India, thus becoming the first state government to move to Supreme Court against the controversial law.
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 original 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.
“Even though the statement of objects and reasons of the Citizenship Amendment Bill referred to persecution of the minorities in the three countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the Impugned Amendment Act does not restrict the class of persons to whom the benefit of the amendment has been extended to persons who are in fact persecuted or claim to have been persecuted. In the aforesaid circumstances, the purported classification made in the said legislations is arbitrary and unreasonable and discriminatory, as having no nexus with the objects and purposes of the legislations in question and is, therefore, violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India,” a section of the suit reads.
The Kerala government has 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.
Kerala Legislative Assembly had passed a resolution on December 31, 2019, urging the centre to repeal the controversial act. Kerala has also stayed the process of National Population Register.
Read Kerala Government’s suit challenging conditional validity of CAA here