The Central government was slammed by the IUML today as the Muslim board approached the Supreme Court to stay Ministry of Home Affair’s order granting Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees living in 13 districts of 5 states. The order seemed to be a silent implementation of the CAA act that faced massive criticism and sparked protests across the country.
The Indian Union Muslim League moved the top court to hold the Centre’s decision of May 28th when it gave special powers to the collectors of 9 districts in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Punjab to officially regard Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh refugees who are either Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Christian, Parsi or Jain as Indians.
In the plea filed today, the IUML said despite the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 being in a pending state, the Ministry of Home Affairs suo moto passed the order on May 28th where the Centre empowered collectors of some areas to grant citizenship to persons, taking support of Section 16 of the Citizenship Act 1955 (henceforth referred to as the Act), the power to grant citizenship under Sections 5(citizenship by registration) and 6(citizenship by naturalisation).
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The Central government is illegally allowing the collectors to give citizenship, the petition claimed.
It cited Section 5 (1) (a)-(g) of the Act that mentions rules, which makes people eligible to even apply for citizenship by registration. Section 6 of the Act permits any person to apply for citizenship by naturalization, but only if he/she isn’t an illegal migrant. The IUML claimed the Centre was shaping the eligibility criteria in its own way by passing an executive order which is illegal.
“That the two provisions read together do not permit the classification of applicants on the ground of religion and therefore the order goes beyond what is permitted by the provision itself. Furthermore, the order does not withstand the test of Article 14 inasmuch as it treats people within a particular class i.e. persons entitled to apply for citizenship by registration and naturalisation unequally by virtue of their religion”, said the application.
Reminding the court about the Centre’s earlier promise, the petitioner claimed the government had assured during the CAA hearing in SC, that a stay on the Act wasn’t required as its rules haven’t been framed yet. Its recent order would be a violation of the assurance.
The plea added, “However, the Respondent Union, in a roundabout way, and in an attempt to circumvent the assurance given to this court, have sought to implement their mala fide designs envisaged under the Amendment Act through the recently issued order dated May 28.”
As such, till the pending CAA matter is resolved, the IUML appealed to the court to stay the May 28th order and its proceedings issued by the MHA.
