Kerala govt moves India top court against implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act

The Kerala government moved the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was implemented by the Centre recently.

The Supreme Court will take up all pending petitions for staying the CAA on March 19.

The CAA was implemented on March 11, and the government will now start granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants -- Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians -- from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who arrived in India before December 31, 2014.

The CPI (M) government on March 14 had said that it would move the Supreme Court against the CAA.

"The state has already filed the original suit before the Supreme Court under Article 131 of the Constitution. The state is (now) gearing up for further legal action through the SC as the central government notified the rules under the Citizenship Amendment Act. The stand of the government is that the Citizenship Amendment Act will not be implemented in Kerala," the Chief Minister's Office had said in a statement.

Kerala's Law Minister P Rajeev had said, "It (CAA) is against the basic principle, fundamental principles of the constitution and we pray to declare this as an anti-constitutional, an ultra vires to the constitution. That was the prayer in the earlier suit. Now we have decided to approach the Supreme Court again. We have delegated our advocate general to interact with our senior counsel in the Supreme Court and take proper action to approach the Supreme Court."

The Kerala government was the first state government to move the Supreme Court against the CAA in 2020, saying that it was against the provisions of the Right to Equality granted by the Indian Constitution.

Source: India Today