Kerala has filed a fresh plea in the Supreme Court, seeking a stay on the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, arguing that they are discriminatory, arbitrary, and violate the principles of secularism.
On March 11, the Centre cleared the path for the enforcement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, by notifying the relevant rules, four years after the controversial law was passed by Parliament. The aim was to expedite Indian citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who arrived in India before December 31, 2014.
Labeling the CAA Rules as ‘unconstitutional’, the state government stated that classifications based on religion and country are discriminatory, arbitrary, unreasonable, and contrary to the principles of secularism.
“The fact that the defendant (Union) itself has no urgency in the implementation of the 2019 Act is a sufficient cause for staying the 2024 rules,” the plea mentioned.
Kerala, which had previously filed an original suit against the validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), asserted that the Amendment Act, Rules, and Orders lack any standard principle or norm in discriminating migrants from other countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Bhutan, which share international borders with India and witness trans-border migration.
Arguing that the CAA was “arbitrary”, Kerala stated that the Rules constitute a “class legislation” facilitating the expedited process for granting Indian citizenship to members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, or Christian communities who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, or Pakistan.
“Classifications based on religion and country are manifestly discriminatory. It is trite and settled law that legislation discriminating based on an intrinsic and core trait of an individual cannot form a reasonable classification based on an intelligible differentia,” the plea contended.
The apex court had agreed on Friday to hear on March 19 the pleas seeking a direction to the Centre to suspend the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024, until the disposal of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
The unveiling of the rules on March 11, just days before the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, marked the commencement of the process of granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants—Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians—from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. The rules took effect immediately, according to a gazette notification.
The CAA had triggered protests across various parts of the country in late 2019 and early 2020 due to alleged discriminatory provisions. Despite the apex court’s refusal to stay the operation of the law, notices were issued to the Centre on the pleas on December 18, 2019.
