Kerala Challenges Citizenship Act In Supreme Court

The Kerala government has challenged the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019 before the Supreme Court.

The plaint has been filed invoking Article 131 of the Constitution of India to challenge the validity of the central government legislation, which the State of Kerala has asserted is maintainable in view of the law laid down in State of Jharkhand versus State of Bihar and Another (2015).

Incidentally, it may be recalled that in December 2019, the Supreme Court had issued notice in a batch of 60 petitions filed challenging various aspects of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019. The Supreme Court is due to hear these petitions on January 22.

The Kerala government has also challenged the validity of the Passport (Entry to India) Amendment Rules 2015 and the Foreigners (Amendment) Order 2015, which regularize the stay of non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who had entered India before 2015.

The crux of the objection registered by the State of Kerala to the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 concerns the restriction of its benefit to only the prescribed six religious minorities ie Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis as well as Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The Kerala government has contended that extending such a benefit based on the religious identity of the individual amounts to a violation of secular principles, which form part of the Constitution of India’s basic structure.

The Kerala government has contended that there is also no rationale in restricting the benefit to religious minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan alone, while ignoring persecuted religious minorities in countries such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar as well as Bhutan.