Can't States Have Opinions?: Top Court On Plea To Scrap CAA, Farm Laws

The top court was hearing a PIL filed by an NGO challenging legislative competence of different State Assemblies in passing resolutions against central laws like Citizenship Amendments Act (CAA) and the three farm laws.

The Supreme Court Friday sought to know from a petitioner-NGO whether the state legislatures have the right to express their opinion or not on central laws and asked it to do some more research on the subject. The top court was hearing a PIL filed by an NGO challenging legislative competence of different State Assemblies in passing resolutions against central laws like Citizenship Amendments Act (CAA) and the three farm laws saying it falls under the Union List of the Seventh Schedule. The NGO has made the Centre and the Speakers of the Legislative Assemblies of Punjab, Rajasthan, Kerala and West Bengal party in the petition, saying the top court is already seized of multiple petitions challenging these laws passed by Parliament. A bench of Chief Justice Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian adjourned the hearing on the PIL after four weeks while observing "we don't want to create more problems than resolving the issue. We will see".