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Synopsis

The National General Secretary of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), PK Kunjalikutty has said that Centre's move to implement CAA during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections is being done with a view to influence the polls.

Accordingly, Kunjalikutty has called for action against this.

"This is also a violation of election guidelines. The election commission should take action. I think this is not a legal action but an act to show that something has been done by the central government and to influence the voters," he has added.

Yesterday, the Central Government handed over the first set of citizenship certificates to some applicants in New Delhi.

Notably, Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay has filed a plea before the Supreme Court seeking the dismissal of a petition filed by the Indian Union Muslim League against the CAA, stating that the legal challenges mounted against the CAA's constitutionality were politically motivated. 

The plea meticulously outlines that the protests witnessed at institutions such as Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and Jamia Millia Islamia University were not rooted in genuine constitutional apprehensions. “They feel entitled to overturn a law passed by the Parliament by violence on the streets. Thus, placing raw street power above the legitimacy of the Government, the Constitution and the electoral Process”, the plea emphasizes. 

In March, even after persistent requests being made for stay on the grant of citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, the Supreme Court had refused to pass any such orders.

"They don't even have the infrastructure in place..", CJI DY Chandrachud had replied to a submission being made to it being recorded in the order that grant of citizenship would be dependent on the outcome of this case.

CJI Chandrachud had recently agreed to hear the applications filed by Indian Union Muslim League and others seeking a stay on the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024 on Tuesday, March 19.

By way of these applications, Court has been asked to stay the continued operation of the Impugned provisions of Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019; and Citizenship Amendment Rules 2024, which would result in valuable rights being created and citizenship being granted to persons belonging to only certain religions, thereby resulting in a fait accompli situation.

It is to be noted that that Supreme Court had earlier referred the pleas challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 to a three-judge bench. 

Over 200 petitions that were filed after the introduction of the Amendment Act in 2019, were taken up by the Supreme Court. Notices in the pleas were issued in January 2020, but the matter could not be taken up for hearing.

CAA, which was passed on December 12, 2019, amends Section 2 of the Citizenship Act of 1955 which defines “illegal migrants”. Now, persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities from the neighboring countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, shall not be treated as “illegal migrants” and shall be eligible to apply for citizenship under the 1955 Act.