India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 23— Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Azad, social activist Swami Agnivesh and former chairperson of National Minority Commission Wajahat Habibullah have jointly moved the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) and government’s move for National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
In the 35-page petition, they have argued that the CAA is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.
They said that CAA creates a classification based on religion by excluding the Muslim population, thereby violating the basic structure of the Constitution.
“The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 is a sinister precursor to the National Population Register and the National Register of Citizens which are tools for identification Muslims and backward sections of citizens. The intent to stealthily ensure that Muslims and backward sections of citizens are excluded from the mainstream Indian population and placed in Detention Centers is clear and is being openly boasted about,” reads the plea.
They also alleged that the whole exercise is aimed at turning India into a Hindu Rashtra.
“A bare reading of the Lok Sabha Debate held on 09.12.2019 shows that the intention behind the Citizenship Amendment Bill is to reverse the effects of Partition and emerge as protector of Hindus and become a Hindu Rashtra,” reads the petition.
CAA seeks to grant Indian citizenship to only Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Jains and Christians who migrated to India without travel documents from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014. They will not be regarded as illegal migrants.
The petitioners have stated that the Act treats migrants belonging to certain specific religions as a separate class from other illegal migrants and creates a class within a class which is impermissible.
“Only migrant Muslims will now remain ‘foreigners’ by virtue of an executive Order (Foreigners Amendment Order 2015) making them illegal migrants under the Citizenship Act, 1955,” they said.
“A conscious decision has been taken to keep out certain persecuted minorities like the Ahmaddiyas & Bohras Ismailis, Hazaras, Atheists from Pakistan, Rohingyas from Myanmar, Tamils from Sri Lanka, Buddhists from Nepal and Jews, Yemenis,” reads the petition.
Since CAA was passed by the Parliament on December 11, around 140 petitions have been filed against it in the Supreme Court.
On December 18, the top court had asked the central government to file its response to the petitions and fixed January 22 for next date of hearing.
On January 22, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna refused to stay the implementation of CAA and gave four weeks to the central government to file its response to all 140 petitions filed in the top court challenging the CAA. The centre submitted its response to only 60 petitions.
In the last one and half months, millions of people have hit streets across the country protesting against CAA-NRC-NPR. Thousands of women are holding round-the-clock sit-in demanding withdrawal of the controversial citizenship law.
Full Petition on LiveLaw.in
