Indian Union Muslim League Challenges CAA Notification In Supreme Court, Seeks Stay

As the central government announced the rules for the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act yesterday, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) today filed a petition before the Supreme Court demanding a stay on the implementation of the CAA.

The central government notified the rules of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 on Monday. The IUML was one of the first parties to challenge the CAA before the Supreme Court when the government enacted the law in 2019. The party has now approached the court again seeking to stay the rules issued by the government. The CAA  aims to grant citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Parsis and exclude Muslims. The exclusion of the Muslims caused outrage among the community in 2019, stirring protests across the country.

A release issued by the IUML MP and organising secretary ET Muhammed Basheer said that the party is moving to the Supreme Court demanding to squash the recent notification by the union government on CAA implementation. The release said that the party has challenged the law in the Supreme Court and it has been pending in the court. It further said that the court has already sent a communication to the government in this regard. The court had in 2019 issued notice to the union government.  The government then  responded by saying that the implementation would not take place since the rules have not been framed.

The petitioner said that as the central government yesterday declared the rules for speedy implementation of the CAA, the IUML will again challenge the fresh CAA notification in the Supreme Court.

Noting that the Indian constitution does not allow discrimination based on caste, the petitioner underlined that the government’s decision on the CAA is discriminatory and thus unconstitutional based on caste, creed and race. “The party stands for equality for all the citizens of India irrespective of religion. Equality before the law is the principle of the Constitution,” the release added.

The MP also said that he has raised the issue several times at the parliament. The party general secretary P. K. Kunhalikutty had said that it would challenge the newly issued notification regarding the CAA in the Supreme Court, noting that linking citizenship with religion is illegal.