Pleas against entry of minorities kept pending in top court
NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday kept in abeyance a challenge to two notifications on the Passport Act and the Foreigners Act that permitted all religious minorities, except Muslims, to stay in India even if they had entered without valid documents.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Ashok Bhushan and Sanjay Kishan Kaul kept the petition pending observing that a Bill to amend the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was pending before Rajya Sabha after being passed by Lok Sabha.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill proposes to amend the original Citizenship Act of 1955 vintage. It mandates that those who cross the border to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan and belong to “minority communities”, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians will not be treated as illegal immigrants despite having entered India without valid or on expired travel documents.
The petitioner has contended that the government could not have issued the two notifications in 2015 without amending the law, which is only now being done.
Keeping the petition pending, the court pointed to propriety, as a Bill to amend the Acts was pending before Parliament. GUWAHATI: Black flags were waved at Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in Majuli on Monday as protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Bill continued unabated in the state. Sonowal arrived at the river island by a helicopter in the morning to participate in an official event.
As soon as he landed, the agitators shouted slogans against him and the Union government, demanding the withdrawal of the controversial bill, which seeks to grant nationality to nonmuslims who fled religious persecution from three neighbouring countries and entered India before December 31, 2014. The legislation, passed by Lok Sabha last week, is likely to be tabled in Rajya Sabha in the budget session.