CAA Excludes Hindus From S Lanka, Nepal: Kerala Tells SC In Plea Against Implementation

Centra did not consider the issues of the Hindus, primarily of Tamil descend, in Sri Lanka and Hindu Madhesis in Terai of Nepal in CAA, Kerala tells Supreme Court

Kerala has moved the Supreme Court seeking an interim injunction restraining the Centre from implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act, (CAA) 2019 and its recently notified Rules. Previously, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Democratic Youth Federation  of India (DYFI) and All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi filed separate petitions in the top court against implementation of CAA. 

The state has submitted in the top court that the CAA and its Rules and Orders are discriminatory in so far as it covers only a class of minorities from a class of countries sharing borders with India and to which and from there have been trans-border migration. While the Hindus from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are covered by the Impugned Amendment Act, the defendant did not consider the issues of the Hindus, primarily of Tamil descend, in Sri Lanka and Hindu Madhesis in Terai of Nepal, whose ancestors migrated to Sri Lanka and Nepal respectively in the eighteenth Century from the then British India. 

"Likewise, the Impugned Amendment Act covers Christians of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan whereas the defendant did not consider the issues of Christians of Bhutan and Sri Lanka. So also, the Impugned Amendment Act covers Buddhists from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. But the defendant did not consider the issues of Buddhists of Nepal." the state said in the application filed in the Supreme Court.

In 2019, the Kerala had filed an original suit under Article 131 of the Constitution challenging the constitutionality of the CAA. In its application, the State pointed out that in 2019, the Kerala Assembly had unanimously requested the Centre to abrogate CAA.

“In accordance with the mandate of Article 256 of the Constitution, the Plaintiff State will be compelled to ensure compliance with the Impugned Amendment Act and the Rules and Orders, which are manifestly arbitrary, unreasonable, irrational and violative of fundamental rights,” the state said its recently filed application.

Kerala has further submitted that CAA Rules notified nearly more than 5 years after CAA was enacted, indicates that Centre is aware that there is no urgency in implementing the provisions of the Act. "It is submitted that the fact that the defendant itself has no urgency in the implementation of the Impugned Act itself is a sufficient cause for staying the Rules.,” the application states.

Recently, the Centre notified Citizenship Amendment Rules to enforce the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019. The CAA aims to fast-track Indian citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014. Section 2(1)(b) CAA says that any person belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, or Pakistan who entered India before December 31, 2014, without valid documents will not be treated as an "illegal migrant."

Kerala's application in the apex court application states, "In accordance with the mandate of Article 256 of the Constitution, the Plaintiff State will be compelled to ensure compliance with the Impugned Amendment Act and the Rules and Orders, which are manifestly arbitrary, unreasonable, irrational and violative of fundamental rights.”

 The state has submitted that the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024  provides a speedy mechanism of grant of citizenship to the persons who are defined as ‘illegal migrants’ under proviso to Section 2(1)(b) of the Impugned Amendment Act. "The implementation of the Rules, creates religion and the country of origin of the person, criteria for grant of citizenship, results in classifications based on religion and based on country, which is discriminatory, arbitrary, unreasonable."

 "It is submitted that the above Original Suit is filed under Article 131 of the Constitution as there exists a dispute, involving questions of law and fact, between the Plaintiff State of Kerala and the defendant Union of India, regarding the enforcement of legal rights as a State
and as well for the enforcement of the fundamental, statutory constitutional and other legal rights of the inhabitants of the State of Kerala," the application read.