The Pinarayi Vijayan-led Kerala government has decided to approach the Supreme Court against the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The rules of the CAA were notified on Monday, 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.
According to a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), the Advocate General has been tasked with initiating legal proceedings in the matter, further to the original suit that is already pending before the court.
“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 CMO said in a statement.
Speaking on the issue, Kerala’s Law Minister P Rajeev said that the CAA is against the basic structure of the constitution and the government has decided to move the Supreme Court.
“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,” Rajeev said.
Earlier in 2020 also, the Kerala government was the first state government to move the Supreme Court against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) saying the amended law was against the provisions of the Right to Equality granted by the Indian Constitution.
Source Agencies
