The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has challenged in the Supreme Court a government order of May 28 inviting non-Muslim refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, residing in India, to apply for citizenship.
An application, filed through advocates Haris Beeran and Pallavi Pratap, urged the court to immediately stay the May 28 order. It said the order actually delegated the power to grant citizenship by registration and naturalisation to Collectors of certain districts. TheUnion Home Ministry’s order was a clever way to implement the “malafide designs” of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) to grant Indian citizenship on the sole basis of religion.
According to the CAA, Indian citizenship will be given to non-Muslim persecuted minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian -- who had come to India till December 31, 2014.
The IUML stated that the CAA was already under challenge before the Supreme Court. The May 28 order intended to circumvent judicial scrutiny.
The government had averted a stay of the CAA by assuring the court that the Rules under the Act had not yet been framed.
Widespread protests
There were widespread protests in different parts of the country following the enactment of the CAA in 2019. In fact, Delhi had even seen riots in February last year.
The IUML said the order, if the challenge against the CAA succeeded in the Supreme Court, would be hard to rescind.
Classification of applicants for citizenship on the basis of religion was illegal. The order did 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”, it noted.
The application said, “If the Order is implemented and citizenship is given to persons on the basis of their religion, and, thereafter, if this Court strikes down the Citizenship Amendment Act and Rules, whereby the act of providing citizenship on the basis of religion is declared void. Then, to take back the citizenship of these persons, granted pursuant to the May 28 Order, will be a herculean task and would be near impossible to implement”.
