SC adjourns IUML plea challenging MHA notification on citizenship by two weeks

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court said it would hear after two weeks a plea challenging the Centre’s notification inviting non-Muslims belonging to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan and residing in 13 districts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, and Punjab to apply for Indian citizenship.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the IUML, requested a vacation bench comprising Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian to grant two weeks to respond to the counter-affidavit filed by the Central Government on Monday.

The Union Home Ministry on Monday filed an affidavit before the top court stated that the notification issued in May has nothing to do with the Citizens Amendment Act. The Union Home Ministry has stated that it has issued similar notices five times in the past.

“The notification dated 28 May 2021 seeks to merely delegate the power of the Central Government to the local authorities in particular cases. The said notification does not provide for any relaxations to the foreigners and applies only to foreigner who have entered the country legally as the Central Government used its authority under Section 16 of the Citizenship Act and delegated its powers to grant citizenship by Registration or Naturalisation to District Collectors,” the MHA submitted.

The MHA in its affidavit further said that such citizenship-granting power, in effect delegation of power, in respect of “minority Hindus with Pakistani citizenship” who had migrated to India five years back was also delegated to Collectors of all the Districts in the State of Rajasthan.

MHA also said that initially, this delegation of powers of Central Government to District Collectors of Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Home Secretary of Gujarat State were only for one year.

The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) had also filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Centre’s move to grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees in thirteen districts in five states.

The petition had been filed in the Supreme Court by League General Secretary PK Kunhalikutty challenging the amendment to the Citizenship Act.

The League wants the notification issued by the Central Government inviting applications for citizenship to be stayed immediately.

The plea also said that the two provisions read together do not permit the classification of applicants on the ground of religion and therefore the order goes beyond what is permitted by the provision itself.

The order does not withstand the test of Article 14 in as much as it treats people within a particular class i.e. persons entitled to apply for citizenship by registration and naturalisation unequally by virtue of their religion, the plea added.

The Petitioner further said that the concept of granting citizenship to persons based on religion was introduced vide the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, and the impugned order and rules as challenged in the present writ.

The said act is against Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the Constitution and violative of the basic structure of the Constitution, the plea added.