'CAA Constitutionally Valid, NRC Necessary for Every Country': Centre to SC

The Centre on Tuesday disputed all the challenges against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court.

In the 129-page preliminary affidavit which was filed in response to petitions challenging the constitutional validity of CAA, the Centre said that the CAA does not violate any fundamental right and that it does not result in expulsion or deportation of any person who may be classified as an illegal migrant.

It also said that CAA does not confer the executive with any arbitrary or unguided powers as the citizenship to the persecuted minorities of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh would be granted as per specifications under the law governing grant of citizenship.

Passed by the Parliament in December last year, the CAA seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants who have fled religious persecution from the three neighbouring countries.

The Centre insisted that unlike the particular neighbouring countries, “India is a constitutionally secular country and further has a large population of persons belonging to the classified communities already residing as Indian citizens”.

"Totality of factors makes it amply clear that India represents the sole rational and logically feasible place to seek shelter for the said communities.”

The Centre also asserted that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is necessary for any sovereign country to identify citizens from non-citizens and added that provisions regarding the NRC have been part of said 1955 Act since December 2004.