Kerala Cabinet asks Advocate General to explore legal options to challenge CAA notification in Supreme Court

Thiruvananthapuram Cabinet challenges Union government's Citizenship Act rules, sparking anti-CAA protests in Kerala.

The Cabinet has asked the Advocate General (AG) to explore legal options to challenge the Union government’s framing of rules to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 in the country.

The State government is against enforcing the “patently anti-Muslim and deeply schismatic” Act in Kerala. The Assembly had in 2019 adopted a resolution demanding that the Union government repeal the Act that sets religion as a criterion for Indian citizenship.

The State government had filed an original suit before the Supreme Court under Article 131 of the Constitution which gives the apex court sole jurisdiction over Centre-State disputes.

The Cabinet on Wednesday said the Union government’s notification of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules had brought a new legal urgency to the case.

Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, the Democratic Youth Federation of India, and the Indian Union Muslim League have moved the Supreme Court against the impending imposition of the CAA.

Meanwhile, anti-CAA protests rocked the State for the third day on Wednesday. DYFI activists blocked trains in Alappuzha. Hundreds of Congress workers marched in protest to Raj Bhavan.

Inaugurating the march, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan called Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s steady refrain that State would not implement the Central law a “Constitutional improbability aimed at deluding voters in Kerala.” The States, he pointed out, had little role in implementing the divisive CAA.