CAA constitutional, legal: Centre's affidavit to Supreme Court
The Union government, in a preliminary affidavit, told the Supreme Court the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is "perfectly legal and constitutional", and asserted the law cannot be questioned before the court as only the Parliament has the "sovereign powers to legislate on citizenship".
The Union government, in a preliminary affidavit, told the Supreme Court the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is “perfectly legal and constitutional”, and asserted the law cannot be questioned before the court as only the Parliament has the “sovereign powers to legislate on citizenship”.
“Only Parliament has got sovereign powers to legislate on citizenship,” NDTV quoted the government as saying in its preliminary affidavit to the top court.
“Under Article 246 of the Constitution, the Parliament has got exclusive power to make laws with respect to any matters listed in the list One in seventh schedule, in that, item 17 is to do with citizenship and naturalisation of aliens,” said the affidavit by the Centre.
It asserted the citizenship law, which has triggered nationwide protests, does not relate to any India and does not take away anyone’s citizenship. “The CAA does not impinge upon any existing rights of a citizen. It won’t affect the legal, democratic or secular rights of people,” said the affidavit.
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The top court is hearing a number of petitions against the CAA that was passed in the Parliament in December last year, triggered countrywide agitations, many of which turned violent in several states.
The CAA seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim minorities from neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if they fled religious persecution from their country and entered India before 2015. The law is being criticised for allegedly being discriminatory towards Muslims.
On the allegation that CAA is violative of Article 14, Live Law quoted Centre as arguing, “The two-tier classification made by the Act for selection of communities and selection of countries pass the test of reasonable classification under Article 14.”
In the affidavit, the government also said the CAA does not affect the secular character of Indian Constitution and does not affect anyone’s right to freedom of religion, according to the report.
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