India’s Supreme Court Refuses to Strike down Citizenship Law

 

India’s Supreme Court Refuses to Strike down Citizenship Law

News One: India’s Supreme Court declined calls to suspend the implementation of a new citizenship law on Wednesday. It instead decided that a constitutional bench of five judges was needed to hear all the challenges to legislation

The court gave Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government four weeks to respond to 144 petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the law which has ignited protests across the country.

The law, which came into effect on January 10 after being passed by the parliament in December, lays out a path for citizenship for six religious minorities in neighbouring mostly-Muslim countries — Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Critics say that the omission of Muslims is discriminatory, and that basing the right to citizenship on religion violates the secular principles of India’s constitution.

 

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