Kerala becomes the first state to challenge center in SC over CAA

Thiruvananthapuram: By moving the alleged 'discriminatory' law, Citizenship Amendment Act, to Supreme Court, on Tuesday Kerala became the first state to challenge the central government over the disputed act. The state government has also sought to declare it as ultra vires the Constitution.

The petition has been filed under Article 131 of the Indian Constitution which empowers SC to hear disputes between government of India and one or more states. In the suit the Kerala 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.

The Kerala assembly had earlier also passed a resolution stating that the CAA is against the secularism of Indian Constitution and urged the BJP government to repeal the law.

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The state Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, had also written to 11 chief ministers to come together to oppose the CAA.

It is to be mentioned that more than 60 petitions filed by individuals and political parties challenging the validity of CAA are pending before the apex court and are likely to be heard on January 22.

Kerala has also protested against the 'disputed' law last month, with thousands of people coming out in Kochi and Kozhikode, demanding the scrapping of the newly passed law. As per protesters the act is “divisive and discriminatory” in nature and was aimed at “polarising the society”.

The Citizenship Amendment Act, approved by Parliament on December 11, refrains Muslim refugees (Though gives citizenship to Sikh, Hindus, Christians, Buddhist and Jain refugees) from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to take up Indian Citizenship, on the grounds that they have lived in India for six years and entered the country by December 31, 2014. The law has been widely criticised for excluding Muslims from granting Indian Citizenship.

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