Take legal action against Pb govt for unconstitutional anti-CAA resolution: BJP leader to Guv

Senior BJP leader Satya Pal Jain on Saturday urged Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore to take appropriate legal action against the state government for the "unconstitutional" resolution adopted by the Assembly against the amended citizenship act.

Calling the Citizenship (Amendment) Act "inherently discriminatory", the Punjab Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution seeking its immediate repeal and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh announced that his government would approach the Supreme Court against it, the second state after Kerala to do so.

Jain, who is a member of the national executive committee of the BJP, said India is a Union of States which has adopted a federal structure demarcating the powers between the centre and the states.

No one can try to infringe upon the powers of the other, may it be the Centre or the state, he said in a statement here.

"This resolution is in utter violation of Article 257 of the Constitution of India, which imposes an obligation on the state governments to ensure compliance with the laws made by Parliament and also gives power to the Government of India to issue directions to any state for this purpose."

He said that enacting a law on citizenship is within the competence and prerogative of the Parliament of India as per Article 11 as well as entry 17 in the 'Union List' in Schedule 7 of the Constitution.

"The resolution adopted by the Punjab Assembly attempts to infringe upon the right of parliament to enact law on the issue and is also an attempt to usurp the powers which are vested not in the states but in the Union of India.".

Urging the governor "to take appropriate legal action against the Punjab government for passing a resolution which is in violation of the provisions of the Constitution", he said that the resolution "has no meaning and may not stand the judicial scrutiny, if challenged by any citizen in any court of law".

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act provides for granting citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who had migrated to India before December 31, 2014 from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.