The Supreme Court has been moved in a PIL defending the constitutionality of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA and calling for stern action against politicians and media houses who are spreading false rumours against the same.
The petitioner, Puneet Kaur Dhanda, has cited violent incidents in various part of the country including those in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Assam etc. and the loss of 50 lives and destruction of public property in the aftermath as reasons for moving the Supreme Court in the matter.
She has raised grievance that the misinformation regarding the Act is being spread by political parties to create a sense of terror and concern in the minds of community belonging to Muslim people across the country.
Dhanda argues that this is being done as part of a conspiracy by various political parties in furtherance of a vendetta against the ruling government its progressive approach. It is argued,
“The negative environment of fear and violence has resulted not only in the loss of precious lives, damage to public property but also has caused huge economic loss across the country and has also bought a bad name to our country.”
Referring to the recent reports of police violence on campuses, Dhanda also contends that the students of these universities were provoked by politicians to create disturbances. In this regard, the petition states,
“The students belonging to these institutions are provoked into violence and Anti- India activities by various out of power political parties and urban Naxalites who are dead against the development of our country. The students of Jamia Millia Islamia University were provoked to such an extent by various political parties that the city of Delhi came to an halt for two days after a full blown fight...in which lot of students and police officials were injured and property worth crores was destroyed in the violence."
On the other hand, Dhanda has highlighted that there is no reason to otherwise protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act. As stated in the petition,
“The matter of fact is that the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 has nothing to do with the Muslim brothers and sisters of our country who are born here or have become citizens of this country by legal means...The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 has been passed with an aim to help and secure the lives of...minorities in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan as in those countries Muslims are in majority and the minorities are being killed, raped, troubled, converted to Islam in these Muslim dominated countries.“
In view of these concerns, the prayers made by the petitioner before the Supreme Court include:
Declare the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 constitutional;
Direct the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act in respective states aggressively;
Direct that the Government publicize extensively through newspapers, electronic media and other means of advertisement regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 and clarify that it is not against the spirit of Constitution of India and in no sense against any citizen of India;
Direct the Election Commission of India to identify and take strict action against the political parties spreading false rumors and violence in the country;
Direct strict legal action against those newspaper and media houses who are spreading false information and rumors;
Direct stern legal action against those disturbing the peace and harmony.
The petition has been drawn by Advocate Vineet Dhanda and filed by Advocate JP Dhanda.
The Supreme Court is already seized of the issue concerning whether the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 is constitutionally valid. Earlier this month, the Bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices BR Gavai and Suryakant issued notice in 60 petitions concerning the same.
[Read the Petition]