The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) on Thursday moved the Supreme Court to challenge the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019, which has been cleared by both Houses of Parliament and is awaiting the President’s assent before it becomes a law.
After the historic bill passed the Lower house on Monday, it also sailed through the Upper House, where the government lacks a majority, on Wednesday.
According to reports, senior Congress leader and SC advocate Kapil Sibal will represent the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) in Supreme Court. IUML, which is an ally of the Congress in the state of Kerala, in its petition pleaded the SC to declare the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 as ‘illegal and void’ as it alleged that the bill violates the fundamental Right to Equality of the Constitution.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal to represent Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) in Supreme Court. IUML in its petition pleaded the SC to declare #CitizenshipAmendmentBill2019 as illegal and void. https://t.co/xB3VbwSHCR
— ANI (@ANI) December 12, 2019
According to reports, along with Indian Union Muslim League opposing Citizenship Amednment Bill, four other Members of Parliament, which include, PK Kunhalikutty (Lok Sabha IUML MP representing Kerala), ET Mohammed Basheer (Lok Sabha IUML MP representing Kerala), Abdul Wahab (Rajya Sabha IUML MP from Kerala) and K Navas Kani (Lok Sabha IUML MP from Tamil Nadu), have also filed a petition in the apex court against the Citizenship Amendment Bill, on grounds that it violates the Right to Equality under Article 14 of the Constitution.
This development comes merely a day after the bill found a smooth passage in the Rajya Sabha, with 125 voted in favour of the bill in the Upper House, 105 MPs voted against it.
Similarly, the bill, which amends the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if they faced religious persecution there, sailed through in the Lok Sabha on Monday with 311 ayes and 80 nos.
Congress veteran leader Kapil Sibal and out-on-bail leader P Chidambaram, both members of the Upper House, had questioned the Modi government over the legal validity of the Bill during the discussion in Parliament.
The historic Citizenship Amendment Bill, after being passed by Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha both, paves the way for hundreds and thousands of persecuted minorities from the three neighbouring countries who have been residing in India for the past many years.
Read: Citizenship Amendment Bill – Myths and lies propagated against it, and the facts
The Bill had faced intense opposition from the Congress and like-minded parties who had earlier vouched for the provisions enshrined in the Bill during past regimes before doing a complete U-Turn in 2019. Shiv Sena, a party that claims to be a Hindutva party, after voting in favour of the bill in the Lok Sabha, had taken a complete U-turn and walked out as the voting began in the Rajya Sabha.
‘Activists’ and ‘Intellectuals’ had joined the liberal mob in opposition to the Bill. Numerous bizarre arguments have been made to oppose the Bill. Certain people have deemed it to be anti-Muslim even though the Bill had nothing to do with Indian Muslims.
There was a meltdown among the ‘Liberal’ crowd on social media after the Bill was tabled and eventually passed in the Lok Sabha. Eventually, such baseless opposition to the Bill has been rejected by both Houses of the Parliament and President Kovind will soon sign the historic Bill into law.
