New Delhi - India's Supreme Court Wednesday said it would hear
a clutch of petitions challenging a new citizenship law in January as
protests against it spreads.
The petitions contend that the new law which makes it easier for
non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to
become an Indian national goes against India's secular constitution
by supporting religion-based discrimination.
There have been demonstrations across the country against the
Citizenship Amendment Act which came into force on December 12.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court refused to stay operation of
law and said it would take up the petitions in January, according to
legal reporting website LiveLaw.
The court asked the federal government to file a response to the
petitions by the second week of January, LiveLaw reported.
The more than three dozen petitioners include representatives of
several opposition and regional political parties, lawmakers and
legislators, Muslim groups, students organizations from north-eastern
India, former bureaucrats and civil rights activists.
The petitioners argue that the new law violates the value of
secularism upheld by the constitution by associating citizenship with
religious identity.
Some question the eligibility of only of Hindus, Sikhs, Christians,
Buddhists, Jains and Parsis facing religious persecution in three
Muslim-majority countries and say persecuted Muslim groups like the
Ahmadiyyas of Pakistan, Rohingyas in Myanmar as well as Tamils of Sri
Lanka should be included.
Petitioners from north-eastern Assam state fear the law could
legalise illegal immigrants who have entered the state from
neighbouring Bangladesh. Four people have died in violent protests
against the law in Assam.