On December 18, the Supreme Court of India is all set to hear a batch of petitions against CAA. This includes petitions filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh and many others.
IUML was the first to move SC on December 12. Their petition says, “The present public interest writ petition raises a seminal important questions related to the promulgation of CA, Act 2019, wherein the benefits of naturalization to the illegal migrants is being extended to certain a class of illegal migrant belonging to the religion of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Such classification on the basis of religious identity of the individual clearly violates Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution. Moreover, the classification based on the religious identity of the individual offends the fundamental principle of ‘Secularism’, which is enshrined as basic structure of the Constitution. Therefore, the present writ petitioner under Article 32 of the Constitution has been necessitated in accordance to the promulgation of Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 on, passed by the Parliament of India.” (Source-Live Law)
Actor turned politician Kamal Haasan’s political party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) is the latest to join approximately two dozen separate petitioners against CAA. Explaining why he chose to move court, Haasan tweeted, “Why are Tamils who are subjected to a methodic genocide and Muslims facing discrimination, be (sic) excluded from the bill? If it’s a genuinely benevolent bill and not a vote garnering exercise, then why won’t this CAB stop to pick up stranded Tamils & troubled Muslims of Srilanka?”
Activists Harsh Mander, Aruna Roy, Nihil Dey, Irfaan Habib and Prabhat Patnaik, have also moved Supreme Court against CAA. Their petition filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan says, “The direct and inevitable consequence of the impugned Act shall be that only Muslims would be targeted in the proposed pan-India NRC proceedings. The fundamental rights violation of Citizenship (Amendment), Act 2019 must be adjudged in the light of ‘direct and inevitable effect’ of the legislation on the individuals belonging to the Muslim migrants.” (Source-Bar and Bench)
Another petition was jointly filed by lawyer Ehtesham Hashmi, journalist Ziya Ul Salam and a few law students. Jan Adhikar Party general secretary Faiz Ahmed also moved SC against CAA on December 13. Late that night, AITC MP Mahua Moitra moved SC praying for urgent listing of her petition on either December 14 or December 16, but SC decided to hear it with all other petitions. Another petition was filed on Saturday by Congress M Jairam Ramesh.
Other petitioners against CAA include AIMIM chief Asauddin Owaisi, Pradyot Deb Barman from the erstwhile royal family of Tripura, the All Assam Students Union, Assam MLA and leader of the opposition Congress MLA Debebrata Saikia, Congress MP TN Prathapan, Rehai Manch, Citizens Against Hate and the Peace Party.