Actor Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) on Monday moved the Supreme Court against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), even as a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde agreed to list on Wednesday the petitions challenging the Act on the basis of an oral mentioning made by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and A.M. Singhvi, representing Congress MP Jairam Ramesh for urgent hearing.
The MNM petition, represented by advocates M. Bhaskar and T. Harish Kumar, said the CAA paved the way for admitting illegal migrants in the country on the basis of their religion in violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
“The benefits of naturalisation 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,” the petition said.
Moreover, the classification based on the religious identity of the individual offended the fundamental principle of secularism, which was part of the basic structure. There was arbitrary classification of the illegal migrants as benefits under the new citizenship law were restricted only to migrants into India on account of religious persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afganistan, for which there was no basis, and also excluded refugees from other countries such as Sri Lanka and Myanmar, it said.
