CAA Is 'Focused Law' & Doesn't Encourage Illegal Migration: Central Government Tells Supreme Court

The central government urged the Supreme Court on October 30 to dismiss all the pleas challenging the validity of the much-talked-about Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), emphasising that the law does not encourage "illegal migration" in Assam or any prospective influx of foreigners in India.

The Centre also vehemently upheld the exclusion of specific areas of Assam and a few more Northeastern states from the application of the CAA, stating that it has been done to "protect the linguistic/ethnic rights" of the citizens and that this was "not discriminatory".

Centre Defends CAA

The Ministry of Home Affairs stated in an exhaustive 150-page affidavit that it is a "focused law" that grants citizenship only to those of six specified communities who arrived on or before December 31, 2014, and now way affect the secular, legal or democratic rights of any Indian, NDTV reported.

Furthermore, the current regime that exists for obtaining people by foreigners of any nation continues to be untouched by the present law, and they continue to remain the same, it stated ahead of the supreme court hearing of petitions on the contentious CAA that sparked massive protests in various parts of India during late 2019 and early 2020 over apparent discriminatory provisions.

SC To Hear PILs Today!

A bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justices S Ravindra Bhat is set to hear almost 232 petitions, mostly PILs, on Monday (October 31) on the CAA issue.

The affidavit stated that the law is "narrowly tailored" and that those migrants "belonging to the six specified communities from the three countries who had entered into India on or before December 31, 2014, will be covered by the provisions of this Amendment Act."

It also added that these migrants are already living in the country, and the Amendment Act does not have a provision that provides for the grant of citizenship to these migrants who might have arrived after December 31, till date or in the near future. It is respectfully presented that the CAA 2019 does not encourage illegal migration into Assam, it further stated.

The MHA stated that the Parliament is competent enough to make laws for the whole or any part of the territory of the country as provided in Article 245 (1) of The Constitution, and the issues of policy domain cannot be challenged in a court of law.

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