The Cabinet has asked the Advocate General (AG) to explore legal options to challenge the Union government’s framing of rules to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 in the country.
The State government is against enforcing the “patently anti-Muslim and deeply schismatic” Act in Kerala. The Assembly had in 2019 adopted a resolution demanding that the Union government repeal the Act that sets religion as a criterion for Indian citizenship.
The State government had filed an original suit before the Supreme Court under Article 131 of the Constitution which gives the apex court sole jurisdiction over Centre-State disputes.
The Cabinet on Wednesday said the Union government’s notification of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules had brought a new legal urgency to the case.
Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, the Democratic Youth Federation of India, and the Indian Union Muslim League have moved the Supreme Court against the impending imposition of the CAA.
Meanwhile, anti-CAA protests rocked the State for the third day on Wednesday. DYFI activists blocked trains in Alappuzha. Hundreds of Congress workers marched in protest to Raj Bhavan.
Inaugurating the march, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan called Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s steady refrain that State would not implement the Central law a “Constitutional improbability aimed at deluding voters in Kerala.” The States, he pointed out, had little role in implementing the divisive CAA.
Only a Congress-led INDIA bloc government at the Centre could annul the discriminatory law. The government should show justice to the country’s common cause by withdrawing the cases registered during the anti-CAA agitation in 2019.
Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP, said that by setting religion as a criterion for citizenship, the Union government had struck at the foundation of the country’s secular Constitution.
Industries Minister P. Rajeeve said secular forces should unite to resist the schismatic legislation. However, he accused the United Democratic Front (UDF) of diverting public attention from the pressing matter by raising the spectre of non-withdrawal of cases. Those booked in connection with protests include persons across the political spectrum. The government would drop non-serious charges.
A galaxy of BJP leaders had said the CAA would not disenfranchise any Indian citizen. The law merely provided a safe harbour for minority community members facing persecution in neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
