As the Union government started granting citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act, Congress ally the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) announced it will approach the Supreme Court and the Election Commission against the move.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday granted citizenship certificates to more than 300 applicants. The IUML first filed a petition in the Supreme Court a day after it was passed in Parliamemt in 2019. It challenged the controversial bill arguing that excluding Muslims from the law goes against the right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution. Later when many others submitted petitions challenging CAA, the IUML became the lead petitioner in the batch of writ petitions in front of the Supreme Court challenging the CAA.
In March, a day after the Centre notified the rules to implement the controversial Act, the IUML filed an interlocutory application in the pending writ petition seeking an immediate stay of the implementation of the CAA. In its written submission filed before the Supreme Court seeking stay of the Act, the party had called the Union government's claim that the Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA), 2019 offers protection to persecuted minorities from the neighbouring countries as "baseless".
The IUML is the second largest party in the principal opposition in Kerala, the Congress-led United Democratic Front.
ALSO READ | Centre hands over first set of citizenship certificates under CAA
The Centre on Wednesday handed over the first set of citizenship certificates under the CAA. Starting the process of granting nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the certificates were given to 14 people.
According to the Home Ministry, the certificates were handed over by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla after the applications were processed online through a designated portal.