New Delhi, January 22, 2020 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to pass any order to restrain the operation of Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) or National Population Register (NPR). Meanwhile, West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee government on Tuesday announced that a resolution against the new citizenship law will be brought in the state Assembly on January 27.
On CAA and NRC, the Supreme Court today gave four weeks time to the Centre to file counter affidavit.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde also indicated the probability of constituting a Constitution Bench to take up the matter on the next date of hearing.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Indian Union Muslim League challenging the new law, urged the court to postpone the process for a few months. However, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal opposed it saying it was equivalent to a stay.
“It means as good as granting stay on the operation of the law,” said the AG.
Then the Chief Justice said: “We aren’t going to pass any such order today.”
Bengal to bring Anti-CAA resolution
West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee government on Tuesday announced that a resolution against the new citizenship law will be brought in the state Assembly on January 27.
“The resolution will be brought at 11 a.m. on January 27,” state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee told mediapersons here.
Chatterjee appealed to the Left Front and Congress legislators to back the resolution.
The minister said he has already spoken to Leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan and would also discuss the matter with Left Front legislative party leader Sujon Chakraborty.
Chief Minister Banerjee said a day back that her government will pass a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act within three to four days.
Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress have been at the forefront of the widespread protests against the legislation in the state, which also saw violence and vandalism after the law was passed last month.
The Left and the Congress, which have also hit the streets against the Act, ridiculed the Trinamool several times over the past few days for not bringing any resolution against the CAA.
The Congress and Left had earlier in the month tried to bring such a resolution in the Assembly but the Trinamool did not agree, and the matter was not included in the list of business of the House.
However, on Tuesday Chatterjee claimed that he had submitted such a resolution to the Speaker ahead of the Left and the Congress, but the matter could not be raised as the House sat for a day’s special session to pass the SC and ST Commission Bill on January 9.
“Who is in the forefront and who is not you have seen many a time. But the biggest victory is the one where people are at the forefront. And that will be a win-win situation. No democratic movement without the support of the people is possible in a win-lose situation,” he said.
The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala and Congress-ruled Punjab have already passed resolutions in the respective Assemblies demanding scrapping of the controversial CAA.
What is CAA?
The CAA, passed in Parliament last month, seeks to provide Indian nationality to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists who fled religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh till December 31, 2014.
As per the Act, such communities will not be treated as illegal immigrants now and will be given Indian citizenship.
