More Than 12 Petitions Filed Before The Supreme Court Challenging The Citizenship Amendment Act 2019

More than a dozen petitions has been filed before the Supreme Court challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019.

Petitioners include Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, All Assam Students Union as well as others.

Other petitioners include Peace Party, NGOs 'Rihai Manch' and Citizens Against Hate, Advocate M L Sharma and law students.

The amended Act has declared that members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh as well as Afghanistan until December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution will not be treated as illegal immigrants, but given Indian citizenship.

Moitra's counsel mentioned the plea before the Chief Justice S A Bobde and sought urgent hearing, but it was denied. The Supreme Court asked her counsel to go to the mentioning officer. Her plea said that the Act is a “divisive, exclusionary and discriminatory piece of legislation that is bound to rend the secular fabric irreparably”.

Jairam Ramesh claimed the Act promotes rather than checks illegal migration and is inextricably intertwined with the bizarre concept of a national National Register of Citizens, “as it does not even attempt to address the humanitarian and logistical issues of excluding millions and is clueless as to where to house them, where to deport them and how to deal with them”.

He contended the Act violates Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution besides being contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court. It also violates the Assam Accord and international covenants, he stated.

The petition by NGOs 'Rihai Manch' and Citizens Against Hate, stated that the amended Act violates fundamental rights, including that of equality before the law, and basic structure of the Constitution. The plea was filed through advocate Fauzia Shakil.

The All Assam Students Union (AASU) has moved the Supreme Court stating that due to the continued influx of illegal immigrants in Assam, the central government has failed to protect the rights of the indigenous people of Assam. The AASU claimed that the amended Act violates the obligations of the central government under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

A writ petition was also filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) claiming that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) 2019 violates Article 14 of the Constitution of India.