New Delhi: At a time when the Union Home Ministry has been preparing rules to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) across India, a senior leader of BJP has approached the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the act.
Vice President of BJP's Tripura State Committee, Patal Kanya Jamatia has filed a separate petition in the apex court challenging the validity of the CAA. Her petition is included among 220 other petitions that were filed against CAA.
"I have filed a petition against CAA. I hope the government will also accept the direction of the Supreme Court," Jamatia told ETV Bharat in New Delhi on Tuesday. On Monday, the Supreme Court directed the Tripura and Assam governments to file counter affidavits within the next four weeks over the petitions that were filed challenging the CAA.
"Different states in India have their own different conditions. That is why the Supreme Court has also decided to take up the CAA case of these two States (Assam and Tripura) separately," said Jamatia.
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Along with Jamatia, Tripura royal scion and the chief of ruling TIPRA Motha of Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) Pradyot Kishore Debbarma filed a separate petition challenging the CAA.
"The unabated influx has already registered a massive geographical change in Tripura as well as in neighbouring Assam," said Jamatia. Although 220 petitions have been filed against CAA, the apex court had decided to take up the matter of Assam and Tripura separately.
With CAA, the Centre aims to give citizenship to the people of minority communities coming to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan following religious persecution.
The issue has already raised widespread protest across India, especially in Northeastern states, with a few States demanding that the Central Government implement Inner Line Permit (ILP) to protect the identity of the indigenous communities.
