New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act does not violate any fundamental right or affect the legal, democratic and secular rights of any citizen.
The central government, in its 129-page affidavit, in response to pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Act, also termed the legislation as "perfectly legal and constitutional."
More important, the government asserted that the citizenship law was a matter impinging upon the sovereign power of Parliament and "could not be questioned" before the court. "Only Parliament has sovereign powers to legislate on citizenship," it claimed.
"Under Article 246 of the Constitution, Parliament has the exclusive power to make laws with respect to any matters listed in the list One in the 7th schedule; in that, item 17 is to do with citizenship and naturalisation of aliens," the Centre's affidavit argued, defending the controversial law at the core of nationwide protests.
"The CAA does not impinge upon any existing rights of a citizen. It won't affect the legal, democratic or secular rights of people," the affidavit asserted, reiterating that the law does not take away citizenship but is about giving citizenship.
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