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Thiruvananthapuram:
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan today hit out at the Pinarayi Vijayan government after it challenged the new Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA before the Supreme Court and said that “common courtesy demanded that prior permission” should have been taken from him. Amid widespread protests against the citizenship law, Kerala government had moved the top court on Tuesday against the law, becoming the first state to do so.Governor Arif Mohammad Khan today suggested that the state government’s move was a breach of protocol. “I’m not saying that what they did is wrong. They may have every right to approach the Supreme Court,” he said.
“But the common courtesy demanded that prior permission (should have been) taken from me… at least I should have been kept in the loop,” he added. Mr Khan also suggested that he will “check if the state government can do this without permission from the governor”. “The constitutional head of the state is getting to know about this through newspapers that the state government is challenging a law passed by the parliament,” he told reporters.
The Citizenship Amendment Act eases the path for non-Muslims in the neighbouring Muslim-majority nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to become Indian citizens. Critics fear that the CAA, along with a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), will discriminate against Muslims.In its petition, Kerala’s Left-led government has called the CAA a violation of several articles of the constitution including the right to equality. The law goes against the basic principle of secularism in the constitution, it further read.
The state government has also challenged the validity of changes made in 2015 to the Passport law and the Foreigners (Amendment) Order, regularising the stay of non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who had entered India before 2015.Over 60 writ petitions have been filed in Supreme Court so far against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Various political parties, NGOs and also MPs have challenged the law. The Supreme Court will hear the petitions on January 22. Earlier this month, Kerala became the first state in the country to pass a resolution against the CAA in the assembly.
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