Kerala on Tuesday became the first state to move the Supreme Court against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019.
The state government, headed by CM Pinarayi Vijayan, has filed a suit under Article 131 of Constitution challenging the validity of the recently enacted central legislation that grants citizenship to illegal immigrants belonging to six religious communities barring Islam and have come to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
In the suit, the LDF government has sought to declare that the CAA 2019 is violative of Article 14 (Equality before law), 21 (Protection of life and personal liberty) and 25 (Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion) of the Constitution as well as violative of the basic principle of secularism enshrined in it.
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The suit states, "The Impugned Amendment Act and Rules and Orders cover certain religious minorities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and overlook other reportedly persecuted religious minorities/ minority sects therein such as Ahmaddiyas, Shias and Hazaras. Ahmaddiyas are reportedly subjected to persecution in Pakistan and Bangladesh."
It also argues, "The Impugned Amendment Act and Rules and Orders are discriminatory in so far it covers only religious persecution, among persecutions on very many grounds, of an irrationally chosen class of minorities in an unreasonably chosen class of neighbouring countries."
Earlier, the government also said it will not implement the the law in the left-ruled state.
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On December 31, 2019, the Kerala Assembly passed a resolution demanding the scrapping of the CAA, amid raging countrywide protests against the legislation.
The ruling CPI(M)-LDF and the Opposition Congress-led UDF supported the resolution in the state.
