IUML moves Supreme Court seeking stay on operationalising CAA

In an application filed in the top court on Thursday, the IUML said that after the Centre notified the CAA on January 10, the Uttar Pradesh government on January 13 sent a list of 40,000 illegal migrants who can be granted citizenship under the amended Act to the Centre. Praying for a stay, it said “therefore it would be in the interest of justice to stay the operation of the Amendment Act, since the same has now come into force”.

“As can be seen from the prompt action taken by the state of UP in collecting the data of non-Muslim illegal migrants in the state, it can be clearly seen that the process of granting citizenship under the Amendment Act to illegal immigrants is already underway,” it said, and prayed that the Act be stayed lest it become a “fait accompli… since, once such citizenship is given to these persons under the Amendment Act, the same cannot be taken away”.

The party also submitted that central ministers have been making “contradictory” statements on the NPR and its alleged links to the NRC, and that this was “creating a widespread confusion and panic among the people at large”.

On November 2014, the MoS for Home had told the Rajya Sabha that NPR was the first step towards creation of the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC), it said.

“The Union Home Minister on several occasions has given statements and speeches stating that the NRC shall be implemented across India…”, the application said. “However, contrary to the statement of the Home Minister”, the Prime Minister in his speech at Ramlila Maidan on December 22, 2019, stated that there was no plan of a nationwide NRC, it said.

On December 24, the Home Minister, “contrary to his earlier statements stated that there is no link between the NRC and NPR, I am clearly stating this today”, it said. Minister Prakash Javadekar also stated that NPR wouldn’t be used as NRC, it said.

On December 29, the Union Law Minister stated in an interview that a “proper legal process” will be followed for a nationwide NRC, including consultation with state governments, and that “some” data collected for NPR “may or may not be used for the NRC”, the party said.

The plea also said that Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which was added in 2004, did not mandate a nationwide NRC to be conducted. Further, the same was in respect with border states, where the problem of illegal migrants exists.