Balochistan Hindu Panchayat group defends Citizenship Act before Supreme Court

Balochistan Hindu Panchayat, an organisation working for the protection of those who fled Pakistan, on Wednesday defended the Citizenship Amendment Act before the Supreme Court, saying the move was meant to protect minorities of three countries and did not go against the principle of secularism.

In an impleadment application, the Delhi-based NGO submitted that the very purpose of the Act, passed in December, was to ensure the well-being of minorities who suffered religious persecution in Pakistan, Bagladesh and Afghanistan.

“Since Muslims are neither minorities nor they face issues of religious persecution because of their religion they are obviously not included here,” it said.

The applicant pointed out Indian Constitution from Articles 29 to 30 provided for special treatment and protection to the minorities, which was not available to the Muslim majority of those countries.

“India has not discriminated or set aside people from any particular community here. The act does not state that the Muslims will not be granted citizenship. Because Pakistan did not honor the Nehru-Liaquat Agreement, the government made a reasonable classification to prefer the communities of Hindu, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians, and Buddhists,” it pointed out.

The applicant further pointed out that the amendment did not anywhere state that if a Muslim immigrant applied for citizenship it would be discarded or would not be considered.

“The right to avail citizenship is equally applicable for the majority of these three countries like other foreigners; It is only for the minorities of these three countries, because of their being a persecuted class, their application for citizenship is being fast-tracked under the present amendment,” it added.

The organisation further contended that the writ petition under Article 32 was not maintainable as none of the petitioners here were aggrieved from the legislation.

Under Article 14 of the Constitution, the government was allowed to make an intelligible differentia having a reasonable nexus to the objective of the law.

The CAA 2019 has been enacted to address the specific issue and to give rights to those migrants who fled their country for religious persecution and entered India till December 31, 2014.

It also maintained that there was no violation of obligation under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as there was no discrimination against the Muslim immigrants since the law does not in any way deny them asylum or refuge in the country nor does it say that their application for citizenship will be rejected.

“It is creating a preference under Articles 29 and 30 of the Indian Constitution to grant them an equal level playing field as the others since they have faced persecution all these years,” it said.