CAA not violating rights of Indians: Centre to SC

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The Centre Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 — providing for the grant of Indian citizenship to minorities facing religious persecution in the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh — is not violative of fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution, including the right to equality.

Barring Muslims, the CAA provides for the grant of Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, and Parsis facing religious persecution in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

A bench comprising Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice Sanjeev Khanna is hearing a batch of cross petitions for and against the CAA.

In its response to a large number of petitions challenging the constitutionality of CAA 2019, the Centre in its 129-page affidavit filed Tuesday said, “The CAA does not violate

● any fundamental right provisions of the Constitution and therefore, the question of violation of constitutional morality does not arise.”

Addressing the petitioners’ contention that CAA violates the principle of constitutional morality and is thus unconstitutional, the Centre said, “The principle of constitutional morality cannot be invoked in isolation and must, in fact, be located within the fundamental right provisions.”

“Constitutional morality is not an unruly horse and cannot become an independent basis for challenging the constitutionality of validly-enacted legislations,” the Centre said.

Having asserted that the CAA 2019 is not in breach of any fundamental right and does not tread upon constitutional morality, the Centre further told the court that the amended law “does not confer any arbitrary or unguided powers upon the executive”.

Further elaborating on this, the Centre in its affidavit said that under section 6B (1) of the CAA, “the Central Government or a specified authority would grant citizenship only in a manner where certain conditions and restrictions would be satisfied by the applicant”.

The rules for the grant of citizenship to religious minorities facing persecution in the said neighbouring countries under section 6B are being framed to “clearly lay down these conditions, restrictions and the manner of the grant of citizenship,” the Centre said in its affidavit. The top court had on December 18, 2019, issued notice to the Centre on a batch of petitions challenging the CAA, which was returnable on the next date of hearing – January 22, 2020.

The court had also said that it would consider on January 22 the plea for putting on hold the operation of the amended provisions of the Citizenship Act.