OPINION | Classification Based On Religion, Caste Or Place Of Birth Is Unconstitutional

My understanding is that home minister Amit Shah is right when he says that Article 14 permits the government to make classification in the laws they are making. The problem is that when BJP talks about classification of different laws for different people, I treat it as contradiction from their own position of oneness. Arti­cle 14 demands that a classification must be reasonable one and it must have a rational object to achieve.  And according to the court, rational object must be a ‘just object’. The Supreme Court has added that though a classification is reasonable, if it’s arbitrary, then it has to be struck down.

Let’s look at CAB. Shah says there are persecuted minorities in our neighbourhood. The question is, whether in these three countries, persecution end after December 31, 2014?  The answer is a big no. Then remove this deadline. If religious persecution is the rational basis of this amendment, from where have they got the confidence that Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will become highly civilised, and pro-minority in...