Until SC intervenes, state has to obey law: Cong leader Salman Khurshid on CAA

After Kerala and Punjab state governments passed a resolution against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Congress leader Salman Khurshid said that states have to obey the law if the Supreme Court fails to interfere in the matter.

He said that the law will remain in the statute book if the Supreme Court doesn't interfere in the matter, and therefore the states have to obey the Centre's decision. 

 Khurshid said, "If SC doesn't interfere it'll remain on the statute book. If something's on the statute book, you've to obey the law, else there are consequences."

He said that many state governments have a "difference of opinion" on the law with the centre but the decision to withdraw the CAA lies solely with the Supreme Court.

"It's a matter where state governments have a very serious difference of opinion with the centre as far as this law is concerned. So we would wait for the final pronouncement made by SC. Ultimately SC will decide and till then everything said/done/not done is provisional and tentative."

The Supreme Court has set January 22 as the date of hearing regarding petitions challenging the constitutional validity of CAA after refusing to stay the act earlier.

 Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal also had the same opinion regarding the matter. At Kerela literature festival in Kozhikode, he said that it will be difficult for states to not follow a law passed by the parliament.

"If the CAA is passed no state can say 'I will not implement it'. It is not possible and is unconstitutional. You can oppose it, you can pass a resolution in the Assembly and ask the central government to withdraw it but constitutionally saying that I won't implement it is going to be problematic and going to create more difficulties,"

Severe protests have erupted in various parts of the country ever since the central government passed the contentious act, which grants Indian citizenship to refugees belonging to the Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, and Jain communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.

Several civil society members and activists have stated that the act discriminates against Muslims, a claim which has been refuted by the Centre, which puts that the act will grant long-deserved citizenship to refugees who have faced religious persecution in these neighbouring countries.