Supreme Court Issues Notice To Modi Govt On Bunch Of Pleas Challenging Validity Of Citizenship Act

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Narendra Modi government on bunch of petitions challenging the validity of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act. A Bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justice BR Gavai and Justice Surya Kant refused to stay the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. The top court said that it will hear the pleas in January. As many as 59 petitions were filed in the apex court challenging the legal validity of the Act. Almost all pleas have called the Citizenship Act unconstitutional. The order comes amid the intense anti-Citizenship Act protests that have swept the nation. The top court has fixed for hearing on January 22 pleas filed by the IUML, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, others against CAA.

On December 11, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 was cleared by the Rajya Sabha after a marathon debate. As many as 125 MPs voted in favour of the Bill in the Upper House and 99 against it. Rejecting Opposition's criticism that the Citizenship Amendment Bill discriminates against Muslims, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had referred to the Nehru-Liaquat pact to justify the new legislation. Since the Nehru-Liaquat pact of giving minorities freedom to practice their religion was not followed by neighbouring countries, Modi government has to do the needful, he said Liaquat Ali Khan was the prime minister of Pakistan when he and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru signed the agreement in Delhi in 1950 confirming minority rights. It was inked in the backdrop of large-scale migration of people belonging to minority communities between the two countries in the wake of attacks by majority communities in their respective territories.